AVOIDING CONSUMPTION IS THE POINT:

The downside of high-deductible (Don Sapatkin, 11/30/10, Philadelphia Inquirer )

Praise: They save money. Criticism: Patients skip care.

A new study led by Jeffrey T. Kullgren, who is affiliated with both Penn's medical school and Wharton, drills deeper into the downside by asking whether income level affects decisions to delay care in these plans, which typically feature family deductibles of $2,000.

Their short answer: It does.

In surveys of families enrolled in high-deductible New England plans, 57 percent of those earning less than 300 percent of the federal poverty level ($54,630 for a family of two, $82,710 for four) said they had avoided or delayed care in the previous six months because of cost, vs. 42 percent of those earning more.

If you think the goal of health care policy is to get people to consume a lot of it you aren't going lower costs.

Posted by Orrin Judd at November 30, 2010 6:28 AM