Before deciding whether appropriate care is available to persons with cancer, already diagnosed or not even yet suspected, we need to understand two factors that inhibit the use of health care even when it is physically available. The first factor is monetary cost. It is a truism that the more goods and services cost, the fewer of them people will consume. This is as true of visits to physicians and dentists, surgical operations, and stays in hospitals as it is of ice cream cones, automobiles, and applications to expensive colleges.
The predominance of payment for health care by insurance companies and government programs rather than by patients themselves during the post-World War II years hid the relationship between costs and utilization of health services. Recent study suggested that greater the portion of physician and hospital costs patients paid out of their own pockets, the fewer physician visits they made and the fewer hospital stays they experienced. The necessity of paying even a small percentage of the bill significantly diminished the patient's utilization of these services. "Free" care, however, resulted in marked increases in utilization.
In some important instances, the barrier to health care presented by out-of-pocket payment was as strong for those who clearly needed the service as for those who did not. A team of physician experts reviewed hospital records to determine whether the admission of several hundred patients was really necessary on medical grounds. Their review indicated that copayment, that is, out-of-pocket payment by the patient for a portion of his or her health care costs, which had no effect on whether a patient's admission was or was not appropriate.
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we better start saving money for our advantages in the future. we cannot predict what will happen next so the last thing you and your loved ones need to worry is the bill.:)
