JustCare

Category: Medicare

  • Escort requirements keep people from receiving medical procedures

    Escort requirements keep people from receiving medical procedures

    Paula Span reports for the New York Times on outpatient procedures that require patients to have someone to escort them out of the doctor’s office. Consequently, sometimes patients must forego important care because they have no one to escort them out of the doctor’s office afterwards. These escort requirements are a particular challenge for people living alone, without friends and family to assist them.

    There are a range of outpatient procedures for which some physicians require you to have an escort. For example, if you need a colonoscopy or cataract surgery, to name two procedures that require anesthesia, you might not be able to get an appointment if you don’t have an escort to pick you up after the service. Without the name and contact information for your escort, doctors might not allow you to schedule these procedures.

    Easy access to transportation home after a procedure is not enough. Some physicians require people to have someone to get them from the doctor’s office to the taxi or car and then from the taxi or car into their homes. The concern is that the patient might have a bad reaction to the anesthesia and end up in a stupor or vomiting or totally disoriented.

    Not every doctor requires an escort. But, some doctors do. One person enrolled in an Aetna Medicare Advantage plan could not find a doctor to perform a procedure he needed unless he had an escort. But, he did not have one, and Aetna won’t cover the cost of the medical escort.

    An escort requirement is a big issue for many people who live alone and don’t have people to turn to for help. They might need a procedure to stay healthy. But,  if they also need an escort for their safety, they are in a quandary.

    Is there a way to avoid having an escort? If you do not have an escort to accompany you to a procedure where an escort is required, you should ask your health care providers that require escorts whether they would allow you to wait in their offices for several hours after a procedure in lieu of having an escort. Sometimes they will.

    How to get an escort? You might try contacting your local church or religious institution. Or, if you’re up to it, look into volunteering in your community for credits. Organizations like TimeBank allow you to bank credit from your own volunteering to enable you to get a volunteer to escort you home from the doctor.

    Here’s more from Just Care:

  • The choice between traditional Medicare and Medicare Advantage: It’s a sham

    The choice between traditional Medicare and Medicare Advantage: It’s a sham

    If all things were equal, the choice between traditional Medicare and Medicare Advantage is easier than you think, as I wrote in a previous post. But as one reader commented, there’s more to it than I could include in that post.

    Here’s part two, explaining why about half of all people with Medicare are now enrolled in the privatized Medicare option: Medicare Advantage.

    Traditional Medicare’s upfront costs are high 

    Traditional Medicare does not have an out-of-pocket cap. Unless people have supplemental coverage to pick up their out-of-pocket costs, their upfront costs in traditional Medicare are high. They easily could spend $3,000 on supplemental coverage and Part D prescription drug coverage. And, that’s on top of their Medicare Part B premium.

    Millions of people cannot afford supplemental coverage; the typical person with Medicare has an annual income of less than $30,000. So, people with lower incomes are more likely to enroll in Medicare Advantage, which has an out-of-pocket limit and few, if any, upfront costs. Not surprisingly, wealthier individuals are more likely to enroll in traditional Medicare.

    In truth: You’ll spend less out of pocket in traditional Medicare with supplemental coverage than in Medicare Advantage when you need costly care and have direct access to the care you want. Cost will not be an obstacle to care as it can be in Medicare Advantage.

    To save money, employers and unions steer retirees into Medicare Advantage

    Increasingly, companies and unions offering retiree benefits contract with Medicare Advantage plans to cover their retirees’ care. The Medicare Advantage plans are willing and able to offer companies and unions special benefits to enroll their retirees, better than what they offer people in the individual market, because the Medicare Advantage plans profit morethrough these contracts than in the individual market. And companies and unions save money on the cost of supplemental coverage.

    In truth: Millions of people with retiree benefits lose their easy access to care, choice of doctors and hospitals, and coverage anywhere in the U.S. without their consent.

    Medicare Advantage marketing misleads people about their benefits

    Medicare Advantage plans use taxpayer dollars to promote their benefits and to claim they are better than traditional Medicare. A lot of the marketing is misleading about the benefits people will get in Medicare Advantage. The government does not use taxpayer dollars to promote traditional Medicare, let alone to explain why it is better than Medicare Advantage.

    In truth: No one should trust the Medicare Advantage TV ads or mailers.

    Sales agents steer millions of people into Medicare Advantage 

    Sales agent commissions for enrolling people in Medicare Advantage are significantly higher than commissions for enrolling people in traditional Medicare. As a result, sales agents have a financial incentive to steer people into Medicare Advantage.

    In truth: No one should trust sales agents; they should use independent, unbiased advisers, such as State Health Insurance Assistance Programs.

    People aren’t told that a Medicare Advantage plan might not meet their needs

    The government suggests that people can pick the Medicare Advantage plan that’s right for them. But, the government does not make data available about key differences among Medicare Advantage plans on Medicare Compare or anywhere else. For example, people don’t know about rates of denial, disenrollment or mortality in different Medicare Advantage plans. Moreover, people do not know what their future needs will be and how the Medicare Advantage plan they choose will meet them.

    The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ “Medicare & You” handbook does not warn people that some Medicare Advantage plans engage in widespread and persistent inappropriate delays and denials of care, let alone which ones. Medicare’s five-star rating system of Medicare Advantage plans is largely a farce.

    In truth: People, who elect Medicare Advantage must gamble on whether they will get the care they need.

    Medicare Advantage plans generally cover fewer services than traditional Medicare

    While in theory, Medicare Advantage plans should cover people for the same medically reasonable and necessary services traditional Medicare covers, in practice they do not.

    People generally don’t know about high rates of inappropriate delays and denials of benefits in some Medicare Advantage plans, let alone which plans have the highest such rates. They also do not know which Medicare Advantage plans have high voluntary disenrollment rates, particularly for people with costly conditions or high mortality rates.

    In truth: Medicare Advantage plans profit from delaying and denying care, and the government does not have the tools or resources to hold them accountable when they are bad actors.

    Additional benefits in Medicare Advantage might not be valuable

    Medicare Advantage plans market their dental and vision benefits, gym memberships and other freebies not available in traditional Medicare. There’s almost no data on the value of these benefits or to show who is able to use these benefits and whether out-of-pocket costs or limited access make them less beneficial than they appear.

    In truth: Enrollees often can’t take advantage of these additional benefits; they can come with high out-of-pocket costs and limited provider networks.

    Medicare Advantage costs can be an obstacle to care

    There’s little information about typical out-of-pocket costs in Medicare Advantage plans, let alone typical out-of-pocket costs for people with different health conditions, such as diabetes or cancer. The Medicare Advantage plans do not make this information available. The government’s “Medicare & You” handbook does not include information on out-of-pocket limits in Medicare Advantage, which can be as high as $8,300 for in-network care alone this year, and significantly more for out-of-network care.

    In truth: Medicare Advantage plans impose financial barriers to care that lead some people – particularly those with low incomes and people of color — to skip or delay care when they get sick.

    Medicare Advantage prior authorization rules and networks can be an obstacle to care 

    People do not know what care they will need down the road and whether their Medicare Advantage plan has specialists and specialty hospitals in its network to meet those needs. People often face obstacles such as prior authorization from their MA plans when they need critical care.

    In truth: Medicare Advantage plans impose administrative barriers to care that keep some people from getting the care they need.

    Traditional Medicare is not always an option once people enroll in Medicare Advantage

    People are told that they can switch Medicare Advantage plans and switch to traditional Medicare each year during the Annual Open Enrollment Period. But most people don’t know that, except in Maine, Massachusetts, Connecticut and New York, they have no right to buy supplemental coverage that fills gaps in traditional Medicare after they first enroll in Medicare, with limited exceptions. They also don’t know that companies selling supplemental coverage generally can charge them much higher rates based on their health status if they switch out of Medicare Advantage.

    In truth: People are often locked into Medicare Advantage once they enroll.

  • Congress must stop the Medigap madness

    Congress must stop the Medigap madness

    On one hand, “Medigap,” health insurance coverage that supplements traditional Medicare, is an incredible product. It usually picks up all but a little of people’s out-of-pocket Medicare costs. On the other hand, people must choose among a sea options they are hard-pressed to understand. And, they must pay a lot of money for Medigap, in order not to worry about their out-of-pocket health care costs. Congress needs to stop the Medigap madness.

    Jake Johnson reports in Common Dreams about  Sen. Elizabeth Warren‘s recent report on how insurance companies encourage insurance agents through money and prizes to upsell people Medigap plans. Even though Medigap is regulated by the federal government, both state and federal governments allow the insurers offering Medigap to run away with the store, scamming “millions of seniors …, offering agents lavish vacations to steer unknowing beneficiaries into more expensive plans,” according to Senator Warren.

    The insurance companies offering Medigap profited handsomely off the $16 billion in premiums they collected last year alone. Older adults are “getting fleeced.” Warren wants federal and state regulators to step in.

    People in traditional Medicare, who don’t have Medicaid or retiree coverage to fill gaps in coverage, need an affordable Medigap plan. They tend to assume that traditional Medicare with Medigap is less affordable than Medicare Advantage, corporate health insurance coverage. But, should you need costly health care services, traditional Medicare plus Medigap can be far more affordable than Medicare Advantage. Medicare Advantage plans typically come with $5,000 in out-of-pocket costs for in-network care alone. Sometimes these costs are higher; Medicare Advantage plans can set our-of-pocket costs for in-network care as high as $8,300 this year.

    Unfortunately, people can’t trust their insurance agents to help them understand the benefits of traditional Medicare over Medicare Advantage. These agents often steer them to Medicare Advantage plans, where they make the biggest commissions. And, when people opt for traditional Medicare, they can’t trust their insurance agents to steer them to the Medigap plan that best meets their needs.

    What you can do: Contact your  State Health Insurance Assistance Program (SHIP) for free unbiased assistance choosing a Medigap plan.

    Warren wants the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which oversees Medicare, to step in. But, it’s hard to see how additional regulations would help much to protect people from predatory sales agents. The only truly non-predatory solution would be for the government to sell people a government-issued Medigap policy or, better still, cap or eliminate out-of-pocket costs in Medicare.

    If Congress were to add an out-of-pocket cap to traditional Medicare, it would reduce people’s need for Medigap coverage altogether. That’s what’s needed. And, it would save Medicare money.

    The Congressional Budget Office recently found that a high out-of-pocket cap–$8,500–would reduce Medicare spending. It would also give people the choice of traditional Medicare without having to buy Medigap supplemental coverage.

    Here’s more from Just Care:

  • Don’t rely on Mark Cuban’s Cost Plus Drugs for the lowest prices

    Don’t rely on Mark Cuban’s Cost Plus Drugs for the lowest prices

    I promoted Mark Cuban’s Cost Plus Drugs a while back as a way to get low-cost generics. As it turns out, Darius Tahir reports for Kaiser Health News that Cost Plus Drugs does not always offer the lowest prices. Bottom line, if you have Medicare Part D, you should shop around if you want the lowest prices on your drugs.

    Cost Plus Drugs now offers more than 1,000 prescription drugs. But, it does not manufacture them. So, your local pharmacy could offer the drugs you need at lower prices. You can also check PharmacyChecker.com for low-cost drugs around the world.

    Cost Plus Pharmacy negotiates prices. And, then it is charging you a 15 percent markup from the manufacturer’s price, plus $3.00 for labor for each medicine and then a flat $5 fee to ship as many drugs as you order.

    In a cost comparison of drugs beginning with the letter A, Kaiser Health News (KHN) found Cost Plus Pharmacy did not offer the lowest drug prices for residents of Washington DC most of the time. But, sometimes it offered massive savings. One expensive drug, aprepitant, an anti-nausea medicine, was nearly $1,000 less through Cost Plus Drugs than through GoodRx, $4,815.30 v. $5,740.

    Cost Plus Drugs is really taking out a lot of the PBM (Pharmacy Benefit Manager) and pharmacy markups, since it replaces the PBM as the middleman. Amazon and Walmart are also offering a bunch of low-cost generic drugs.

    Cost Plus Drugs is not a pharmacy but uses Truepill, a mail-order pharmacy.

    Bottom line, you Part D drug coverage should offer you some savings on some drugs, particularly brand-name drugs. But, don’t count on it to give you the lowest out-of-pocket costs. The copays can be higher than the total cost of your drugs through Costco or Cost Plus Drugs, at least for now.

    The good news, if you take a lot of drugs, is that beginning in 2026, you will not pay more than $2,000 in total for your prescription drugs on formulary through your Part D drug plan. That is one of the big benefits of the Inflation Reduction Act passed in 2022.

    Here’s more from Just Care:

  • Pharmacy Benefits Managers continue to drive up costs

    Pharmacy Benefits Managers continue to drive up costs

    Most people likely do not even know what a Pharmacy Benefit Manager (PBM) is. PBMs allegedly add value to your prescription drug benefit through negotiating drug discounts with pharmaceutical companies on behalf of health insurance companies. However, based on everything we know, PBMs pocket a lot of those savings or share them with the health insurance companies covering your prescription drugs and drive up your prescription drug costs.

    Last week, the Senate Commerce Committee held a hearing in which members expressed tremendous frustration over potentially “anticompetitive” PBM activities that drive up costs for people.  In Senator John Tester’s words: “I gotta be honest with you, the way I see the situation on PBMs I don’t know why the hell they even exist.”

    The Committee is considering the Pharmacy Benefit Manager Transparency Act of 2023. The bill is designed to ensure better state and federal oversight of PBMs. Instead of bringing down drug prices for people, PBMs are putting neighboring pharmacies out of business and running away with enormous profits.

    The Senators on the committee want “better transparency” as to what is going on with PBMs. That would be fine, but that won’t stop the PBMs from keeping the discounts they secure from manufacturers for themselves and not passing them along to patients.

    The lack of transparency in PBMs helps them to profit. They used to work independently of health insurers, designing formularies with lower-cost drugs, steering people to generics and mail-order options. But, that all has changed dramatically.

    Today there are three PBMs, all owned by insurance companies, which control 80 percent of the prescription drug market. CVS Health alone controls one third of the market. Cigna controls more than a quarter of the market (26 percent). And UnitedHealthcare controls more than a fifth of the market (21 percent).

    Senator Grassley pointed out that PBMs can move people to buy more expensive drugs in order to increase their profits. We have seen this with CVS Health, which has been found not to include some generic drugs in their formularies or in their drugstores as a way to get people to buy more costly brand-name drugs.

    Here’s an example of how PBMs drive up costs to people. Ro­su­vas­tatin is a low-cost gener­ic drug to lower cho­les­terol. It costs a phar­ma­cy around $10 for a 90-day sup­ply. Somehow, the PBMs make the av­er­age whole­sale price for rosuvastatin $805.40 for a 90-day sup­ply.

    Rosuvastatin had been in the lowest copay tier in Medicare Part D. But in 2021, the PBMs moved the drug to a Tier 3 drug from a Tier 1 drug, driving up the copay to $141 from $15. Insanity.

    Part D prescription drug insurers appear to engage in these practices as much as any other insurer. In fact, at times, you can  save money on your drugs by not using your Part D insurance coverage and paying for your drugs out of pocket.

    One big step Congress and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services could take to help people with Medicare would be to require Medicarea Part D plans to tell their members that when they can purchase their drugs out of pocket at less cost, they will reimburse their members for the cost of those drugs. Better still, Congress should require Part D insurers to include on their formularies the lowest-priced version of the drugs they cover.

    Here’s more from Just Care:

  • People with Medicare are less likely to get dental care

    People with Medicare are less likely to get dental care

    Only about half of older adults in the US have health insurance that covers dental care, according to new research out of Harvard. Millions cannot afford to pay out of pocket for dental care. Consequently, people with Medicare are less likely to get dental care and more likely to lose their teeth.

    Although you are most at risk of needing dental care by the time you enroll in Medicare, you are least likely to have insurance coverage for dental care. Medicare helps promote health equity when it comes to medical and hospital care. But, because Medicare does not cover dental care, it promotes racial dental health inequities.

    Medicare Advantage plans, which are offered by private insurers, often attract enrollees because they claim to offer dental coverage. But, Medicare Advantage plans have no meaningful data showing that the the dental coverage they offer is easy to access or affordable. And, it appears that most people in Medicare Advantage plans offering dental coverage do not get this benefit. Out-of-pocket costs can be high and in-network providers can be scarce, preventing many Medicare Advantage plan enrollees from getting the dental services they need.

    Researchers found that enrollees in Medicare Advantage with a dental benefit did not use dental services any more than people in Traditional Medicare, even though Traditional Medicare does not cover dental services. Moreover, Medicare Advantage enrollees had a significantly larger drop in dental spending from private insurance at age sixty-five than Traditional Medicare enrollees.

    The researchers looked at whether people in Traditional Medicare and Medicare Advantage were able to continue to get dental services after they turned 65.  They did not see a decrease in annual visits. But, they saw that nearly nine percent fewer people were receiving fillings or crowns. The researchers also saw that millions more people–nearly one in 20–were losing all their teeth.

    “Loss of teeth can have a number of negative downstream effects,” said one expert. “It’s associated with many geriatric conditions, including frailty and cognitive function.”

    Here’s more from Just Care:

  • Medicare Advantage plans denied two million prior authorization requests in 2021

    Medicare Advantage plans denied two million prior authorization requests in 2021

    Imagine that you were given a wad of cash to deliver a service when necessary. And, it was in your discretion to determine when the service was necessary. That’s effectively the way Medicare Advantage works, with the federal government giving Medicare Advantage plans, health plans offering Medicare benefits, an upfront monthly payment and the discretion to decide when care is medically necessary.  Not surprisingly, the Kaiser Family Foundation has just determined that, overall, health plans offering Medicare Advantage denied two million of 35 million prior authorization requests in 2021, for services treating physicians determined were needed.

    Put differently, across the spectrum of nearly 4,000 Medicare Advantage plans, six percent of requests for authorization of services were denied. The Medicare Advantage plans hire physicians to assist them in withholding or delaying care. They often are not specialists in the area of care they are reviewing. On appeal, the vast majority of denials were fully or partially overturned. But, only a tiny fraction of denials were appealed.

    Anthem, Humana and Centene had the highest percentage of prior authorization requests. But, CVS, Kaiser and Centene denied the highest percentage of requests, 12 percent, 12 percent and 10 percent respectively. What we don’t know is which types of services were most frequently denied. Kaiser explains that it could not answer these questions because CMS does not make this information available. It might not even collect it.

    Anthem Medicare Advantage plans received the most requests for prior authorization, nearly three for each of its enrollees. Kaiser Permanente received 0.3 requests for each of its enrollees. Centene and CVS overturned the overwhelming majority of denials that were appealed.

    The data does not reveal the reasons that Medicare Advantage plans most frequently deny prior authorization requests. A recent Pro Publica report on United Healthcare’s practices suggest that, if a service is particularly expensive, some Medicare Advantage plans are probably more likely to find a doctor to deny the service regardless of how critical it might be to a patient’s health and well-being. A recent report from the Office of the Inspector General at the Department of Health and Human Services found that costlier services, such as nursing and rehab, are more likely to be denied.

    What should you do to protect yourself from Medicare Advantage plans that inappropriately deny or delay care? If you enroll in Traditional Medicare and have supplemental coverage–either Medigap, which you buy in the individual market, Medicaid, or retiree coverage that fills gaps in Traditional Medicare–you can ensure coverage for the care your doctors say you need. If supplemental coverage is unavailable or unaffordable, sadly, the government forces you to gamble with your health.

    The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which administers Medicare, does little more than offer a seriously flawed and misleading five-star rating system to help you distinguish among Medicare Advantage plans. That system is not designed to help you avoid the Medicare Advantage plans that inappropriately deny care and other bad actors.

    Here’s more from Just Care:

  • Medicare patients with liver cancer face $10,000 in out-of-pocket costs

    Medicare patients with liver cancer face $10,000 in out-of-pocket costs

    Even with Medicare, out-of-pocket costs for people with liver cancer can be unaffordable. A recent study found that Medicare patients must spend $10,000 out of pocket for medical and hospital care in the first year of treatment. When will Congress focus on bringing down out-of-pocket health care costs?

    About half of people with liver cancer are diagnosed after they go on Medicare. Still, the costs of liver cancer are substantial. Enormous debt and sometimes bankruptcy are likely consequences of liver cancer for people with Medicare. A study author explains that “Financial toxicity of cancer therapy can negatively impact patients, resulting in medical debt and even bankruptcy for some patients.”

    What does Medicare cover? If you have liver cancer, Medicare pays for medical services, hospital care, prescription drugs, hospice care and sometimes also physical therapy, home health care and skilled nursing facility care. But, it does not cover the full cost of your care.

    New treatment options, including new surgeries, radiation-based therapies, thermal ablation, which uses heat to kill the cancer, and immunotherapies, can be very effective. But, they all come with significant costs. And, costs have been increasing significantly since 2015, the most recent year studied.

    The study compared costs for patients with cirrhosis with costs for patients with liver cancer. Costs for cirrhosis patients were much lower than the costs for patients with liver cancer. Patients with liver cancer need additional financial help.

    This study did not look at prescription drug costs for liver cancer patients with Medicare. These drug costs only add to people’s financial burden.

    More people are dying with liver cancer because it often is not detected until late stage. By 2040, liver cancer is predicted to be the third-leading cause of death from cancer.

    In the US, cancer treatment is stunningly expensive. It is expected to rise to $250 billion in 2030.

    Here’s more from Just Care:

  • Case study: Costco saves one couple hundreds of dollars over Medicare Part D

    Case study: Costco saves one couple hundreds of dollars over Medicare Part D

    If you ask me, often the smartest way to save money on prescription drugs is to import them from abroad. But, though no one has ever reported a safety issue from importing drugs from verified pharmacies abroad, importation is still not legal, even for personal use. One Just Care reader, D Busa, wrote in to explain how he saves money on prescription drugs without relying on importation and, with his permission, I am sharing Busa’s story.

    Busa takes a good bit of time to check out all his options under Medicare Part D, which provides prescription drug coverage, each year. Most people with Medicare don’t take that time, even though it’s super important. Whether you’re in Traditional Medicare or in a Medicare Advantage plan, the Part D plan or Medicare Advantage plan offering Part D coverage that met your needs one year, can cost you a lot more than expected the following year.

    Unfortunately, with Part D, your prescription drug costs can change at any time. And, if you need new drugs, the plan you chose because of its lower cost for the drugs you had been taking could end up costing you more than other Part D plans because of new drugs your doctor prescribes. Curiously, even when you are a careful shopper of Part D plans, you can sometimes save a lot of money getting your drugs without relying on Part D coverage.The system is INSANE. It works very well for the insurers at the expense of people with Medicare.

    Busa saw his prescription drug costs rising in Medicare Part D even though he shopped around for the best possible Part D plan. So, he looked to see whether he could get the single prescription drug he takes for less without using his Part D coverage. He found that by using Costco mail order, he could reduce his annual out-of-pocket costs by $459,  $275 through Part D premium savings and $244 for drugs through Costco minus the $60 for annual Costco membership.

    Again, the only word to describe Busa’s discovery that his Medicare Part D plan was effectively ripping him and Medicare off is INSANITY. How in god’s name does Medicare agree to pay its share of the cost of a Part D drug or say it is providing Medicare coverage for a drug that costs so much less at Costco without prescription drug coverage?

    Busa found that his wife was also better off getting two of her drugs through Costco. On Part D, she paid $280 for the drugs. At Costco, she paid $57, saving $223 over three months.

    Busa explains that sometimes Part D is less expensive than Costco. Two other drugs his wife takes cost her $6 through her Part D plan and $14 at Costco.

    Busa’s strategy is to pick the Part D plan with the lowest premium. By doing so, he says, “overall I save $550 on Part D premiums and $1,684 on drugs or $2,234 annually.” INSANITY.

    Here’s more from Just Care:

  • Poll: Many more older adults delayed care because of cost in 2022

    Poll: Many more older adults delayed care because of cost in 2022

    Nearly four in ten Americans reported that they or a family member delayed health care last year because of the cost. That’s an all-time high and a huge increase from the year before. Even with Medicare, many more older adults also report delaying care.

    The Gallup poll shows a 12 percent increase in Americans skipping health care in 2022 from 2021. There was no change in people’s response to the question of whether they or a family skipped care between 2020 and 2021. But, 2022 was  a year of tremendous inflation, which has made life even more difficulty for most adults.

    Even more troubling is that Americans reported that they or their family members often delayed treatment for serious conditions in 2022. Of the 38 percent who reported delays in care, 27 percent said that the delays were for very serious or somewhat serious treatments.

    Not surprisingly, people with annual incomes under $40,000 were more likely to say that they or a family member had delayed care for a serious health condition (34 percent) than people with incomes above $100,000 (18 percent). And, 12 percent more people with lower incomes delayed care for serious conditions in 2022 than in 2021. People with incomes between $40,000 and $100,000 delayed care almost as much as people with incomes under $40,000 (29 percent).

    Women and younger adults also were more likely to report delays in getting medical treatments for serious conditions for themselves and family members. Almost one in three women (32 percent) reported delaying care in sharp contrast to one in five men. That’s an increase of 12 percentage points for women in just one year.

    About one in eight (13 percent) people with Medicare reported delaying care in 2022. That’s nearly double– a six percent increase–those reporting delays in care just a year earlier. Still, people with Medicare were less likely to report delaying care because of cost than working people and young adults.

    Here’s more from Just Care: