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A troubled health system lets Americans with heart failure fall into financial ruin, according to a new analysis of health spending.
The study, published May 16 in the Journal of the American Heart Association, estimates that 236,471 families in the U.S. will experience a high financial burden and 75,997 families will be at risk of financial disaster because they're trying to pay for heart failure treatment. Over 5.4 million people in the U.S. have heart failure each year, a chronic condition in which the heart stops pumping blood at normal levels.
In the study of 788 families captured in the Agency of Healthcare Research and Quality's Medical Expenditure Panel Survey from 2014 to 2018, researchers found that these families spent an average of $4,423 on out-of-pocket health care expenses in a year. Fourteen percent of families spent more than 20% of their annual post-food income on their health, while 5% of families spent over 40% of their income on health expenses — a level of spending the World Health Organization calls "catastrophic burden." Low-income people suffered disproportionate financial strain; their odds of catastrophic burden were 14 times higher than middle- and high-income families'.
The paper lays out empirical evidence of a problem that one of the authors sees in his cardiology practice. "I ask people about challenges with paying for their medication, and if they feel being unable to pay for medications will make them not be able to take them at all, we look at alternatives," said Rohan Khera, an assistant professor at Yale School of Medicine. "Some patients opt to not get the highest level of care. Those are tough decisions that we unfortunately have to make in our day-to-day practice. You want to not ration out care, which some of these patients are doing on their own end."
The study found that people on Medicare — the national health insurance program that covers people over 64 and some younger people with disabilities — were spending over $1,000 a year out of pocket on critical medications.
"There should be broader coverage, but the coverage lags behind the evidence-based or the clinical practice," Khera said. "They are just pricey medications, and even with partial coverage, it ends up being a lot of money for people."
Read more here. (The Academic Times)
The study, published May 16 in the Journal of the American Heart Association, estimates that 236,471 families in the U.S. will experience a high financial burden and 75,997 families will be at risk of financial disaster because they're trying to pay for heart failure treatment. Over 5.4 million people in the U.S. have heart failure each year, a chronic condition in which the heart stops pumping blood at normal levels.
In the study of 788 families captured in the Agency of Healthcare Research and Quality's Medical Expenditure Panel Survey from 2014 to 2018, researchers found that these families spent an average of $4,423 on out-of-pocket health care expenses in a year. Fourteen percent of families spent more than 20% of their annual post-food income on their health, while 5% of families spent over 40% of their income on health expenses — a level of spending the World Health Organization calls "catastrophic burden." Low-income people suffered disproportionate financial strain; their odds of catastrophic burden were 14 times higher than middle- and high-income families'.
The paper lays out empirical evidence of a problem that one of the authors sees in his cardiology practice. "I ask people about challenges with paying for their medication, and if they feel being unable to pay for medications will make them not be able to take them at all, we look at alternatives," said Rohan Khera, an assistant professor at Yale School of Medicine. "Some patients opt to not get the highest level of care. Those are tough decisions that we unfortunately have to make in our day-to-day practice. You want to not ration out care, which some of these patients are doing on their own end."
The study found that people on Medicare — the national health insurance program that covers people over 64 and some younger people with disabilities — were spending over $1,000 a year out of pocket on critical medications.
"There should be broader coverage, but the coverage lags behind the evidence-based or the clinical practice," Khera said. "They are just pricey medications, and even with partial coverage, it ends up being a lot of money for people."
Read more here. (The Academic Times)
