According to a new survey, in the United States children with asthma will miss out on important doctor visits and precautionary medications because of high health insurance co-pays.
Because of higher co-pays parents are switching to less expensive drugs, giving their children less medication than prescribed and putting off doctor visits to the emergency room.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 9% of U.S. children have the potentially fatal chronic respiratory illness.
According to Dr. Jefry Biehler, chairman of pediatrics at Miami Children’s Hospital in Florida, “Children who are treated early and use medication to prevent asthma flare-ups do better than kids who are only treated when an attack occurs”.
Study author Vicki Fung, a health services researcher at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston said that, “Asthma is one of the most common chronic conditions among children, and the prevalence of asthma is greater among low-income populations”.
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Fung added, “As health insurers and employers require patients to pay more out-of-pocket medical costs, many families, even those with insurance, could struggle to afford the cost of care”.
In 2010 The Affordable Care Act, signed into law, has enabled more families to obtain health insurance, but some of those policies are expensive or require cost-sharing. Also, although the law provides for subsidies for many low-income children, certain rules exclude some families from receiving these subsidies.
Mr. Fung questions whether these subsidies are enough to reduce cost barriers to care? He said, It is concerning that the children we deal with are sometimes more vulnerable in areas we didn’t recognize, We have to be careful that we don’t create a void for those families that can’t afford all the things they need for their child, but who are above the financial level that gives them government insurance that will provide everything at no or minimal cost”