Individuals who incur medical debt tend to have it happen in what researchers are calling “dramatic financial shocks” because healthcare expenses are calculated on an annual basis and do not take into consideration that out-of-pocket spending happens in short bursts throughout the year and are not generally spread out.
In fact, nearly 40% on individuals who had health insurance yet still incurred out-of-pocket expenses did so in just one encounter, and an additional 26% of individuals incurred 90% of their out-of-pocket expenses in one or two encounters, according to a report that was released earlier this week which analyzed data from 2017.
Eleven percent of individuals who had health insurance in 2017 did not have an interaction with a healthcare provider that year and 6% had at least one encounter where they were not responsible for any out-of-pocket expenses. The remaining 83%, however, were responsible for a portion of their healthcare costs, at an average amount of $954 per person.
“Policy makers working to improve the affordability of care should focus not only on curbing the growth of health care prices but also on innovative approaches to cost sharing that prevent dramatic financial shocks to household budgets as a result of medical bills,” according to the researchers.
On average, individuals with health insurance interacted with a healthcare provider through an office visit, inpatient stay, or prescription on 13 distinct days during the course of the year.
One suggestion put forth by the researchers was to institute monthly out-of-pocket spending limits instead of an annual one, which “could improve access to care and financial security while encouraging judicious use of health-care services by patients.”
