Insurance Industry Study: One in four Americans who purchased insurance still can't afford medical care

Just because you have health insurance doesn't mean you can afford medical care, as this Families USA study concluded.

One in four people who bought health insurance on their own in the US couldn’t afford medical care last year, according to a study released Thursday that shows out-of-pockets costs are still getting between Americans and their doctors despite Obamacare’s progress in cutting the ranks of the uninsured.

One in four people who bought health insurance on their own couldn’t afford medical care last year, according to a study released Thursday that shows out-of-pockets costs are still getting between Americans and their doctors despite Obamacare’s progress in cutting the ranks of the uninsured.

Families USA studied people who purchased insurance in the non-group market — they weren’t covered through their jobs or a public program — in 2014, the first full year for which Obamacare’s marketplace was fully operational, and found 25.2 percent struggled to get care or pay for needed drugs.

Some of those studied entered Obamacare’s health exchanges, while others sought out coverage in the off-exchange market.

Lower and middle-income people were hit especially hard by high deductibles — the amount that must be paid before insurers will pay a claim — and other expenses that come straight from their wallets.

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USA: Smart money versus dumb voters - America dumbs down: a rising tide of anti-intellectual thinking

The American public’s bias against established science doesn’t stop where the Bible leaves off, however.

The same poll found that just 53 per cent of respondents were “extremely” or “very confident” that childhood vaccines are safe and effective. (Worldwide, the measles killed 120,000 people in 2012. In the United States, where a vaccine has been available since 1963, the last recorded measles death was in 2003.)

When it comes to global warming, only 33 per cent expressed a high degree of confidence that it is “man made,” something the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has declared is all but certain. (The good news, such as it was in the AP poll, was that 69 per cent actually believe in DNA, and 82 per cent now agree that smoking causes cancer.)

If the rise in uninformed opinion was limited to impenetrable subjects that would be one thing, but the scourge seems to be spreading. Everywhere you look these days, America is in a rush to embrace the stupid. Hell-bent on a path that’s not just irrational, but often self-destructive. Common-sense solutions to pressing problems are eschewed in favour of bumper-sticker simplicities and blind faith.

In a country bedeviled by mass shootings—Aurora, Colo.; Fort Hood, Texas; Virginia Tech—efforts at gun control have given way to ever-laxer standards. Georgia recently passed a law allowing people to pack weapons in state and local buildings, airports, churches and bars. Florida is debating legislation that will waive all firearm restrictions during state emergencies like riots or hurricanes. (One opponent has moved to rename it “an Act Relating to the Zombie Apocalypse.”) And since the December 2012 massacre of 20 children and six staff at Sandy Hook Elementary School, in Newtown, Conn., 12 states have passed laws allowing guns to be carried in schools, and 20 more are considering such measures.

The cost of a simple appendectomy in the United States averages $33,000 and it’s not uncommon for such bills to top six figures. More than 15 per cent of the population has no health insurance whatsoever. Yet efforts to fill that gaping hole via the Affordable Health Care Act—a.k.a. Obamacare—remain distinctly unpopular. Nonsensical myths about the government’s “real” intentions have found so much traction that 30 per cent still believe that there will be official “death panels” to make decisions on end-of-life care.

Smart money versus dumb voters is hardly a fair fight. But it does offer compelling evidence that the survival of the fittest remains an unshakable truth even in American life. A sad sort of proof of evolution.

Read more: America dumbs down: a rising tide of anti-intellectual thinking

Medical Tourism to Turkey at its zenith

Turkey’s medical tourism offers high quality facilities for medical, spas, thermal and wellness services and adds five-star hotel accommodation into the package. Turkey has become a premier choice destination for medical tourists from European countries such as Russia, Ukraine, Germany, England, Netherlands, Romania, Bulgaria and recently medical tourists from Middle Eastern and Arab countries visit the country as well. 

Most hospitals in Turkey have English-speaking doctors and medical staff that are certified by the Turkish Medical Association as well as being members of organizations according to their specializations, including the Turkish Dental Association, Turkish Gynecologist and Obstetric Association, Turkish Orthopedic and Traumatology Association, Turkish Plastic Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgery Society, Turkish Society of Cardiovascular Surgery along with other specialized associations.

Turkey hosts more than 30 medical facilities that are accredited by the Joint Commission International. This is the largest number for accreditation that any country has ever achieved. Some hospitals are affiliated with top US medical providers such as the Harvard Medical School and Johns Hopkins Medicine, amongst others.

Hospitals contributing to medical tourism in Turkey are equipped with the latest medical technologies and have board-certified staff, with over 35% of physicians trained in the Western countries.
 
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