Incomes, Profits Up and Utilization Down

Utilization rates represent people visiting physicians and this number has dropped in the face of the recession. On June 26, 2012 in amednews.com Emily Berry reported that “Even among people who make $90,000 or more per year, nearly 40% skipped or delayed care because of cost.”

It’s a sobering fact that in spite of all the confusing discussion about healthcare and the benefits of the Affordable Care Act the bottom line is that healthcare costs keep rising and people are avoiding physician visits as a result. Still, the same article reports that annual spending on healthcare is up.

We can’t keep up without cost controls, period. Until consumers advocate en masse for healthcare reform that includes cost controls we are in a losing game of chasing a carrot we’ll never reach, manageable healthcare costs. Instead insurance is raised, healthcare premiums are raised, the cost of healthcare services is raised, and levels of insurance coverage are reduced.

Pay attention to the trend in your own life and understand that you need only take one side, the side of meaningful cost controls or our healthcare sector will thrive but our healthcare will continue to deteriorate.