Running head: Activity 1: Demand for Health and Medical Care
ACTIVITY 1:
DEMAND FOR HEALTH AND MEDICAL CARE
Do high deductible plans impact the ‘overall’ cost of healthcare?
Monica Flores
Health Administration
Health Care Economics 4104
Activity 1: Demand for Health and Medical Care 2
Do high deductible plans impact the ‘overall’ cost of healthcare?
Health care is on the rise and the demand for healthcare is stronger than ever. High
deductibles health plans are rising concerns when it comes to high financial burdens from health
care, especially for low-income Americans. There are different amounts paid by consumers when
it comes to hospital bills. Many packages require consumers to pay deductibles. Deductibles are
costs paid by employees and families each year before their medical insurance kicks in.
According to Hicks, L. L., & Jacobs, P. (2014), high deductibles create this burden for families
with lower income than those with a high income because the deductible represents a large
percentage of total revenue. Before deductible pertained to the one-hundreds, but now
consumer-driven plans are usually 1,000 per person and can be 2,000 per family. Since the start
of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), there has been an improvement in health insurance coverage
for those employers who wouldn’t offer insurance. Even before the Affordable Care Act require
all plans to pay for preventive care, the high deductible insurance usually covered 100 percent of
the cost of physicians and screenings experts say.
Though, the pervasiveness of high deductible health plans that are being offered by
employers raise concerns and question the policy regarding out-of-pocket spending burdens.
Many people who become seriously ill are at more risk of losing their jobs and therefore are
forced to be dependent on charity programs funded by the government. Americans, in general,
are finding it harder to get individual coverage. The cost of healthcare is affecting everyone.
Even though there are covered individuals, their deductible is high and spend more paying
deductible than on things that they need more like household responsibilities. Some companies
are big, and they have shifted all or most of their workers to high deductible plans. According to
Activity 1: Demand for Health and Medical Care 3
Washington Post, Financial firms Well Fargo, and American Express and Whole grocer foods
have pushed their employees to High deductibles.
According to health affairs, High Deductible health plans (HDHPs) can decrease
spending, but also supine to arrest health care consumers from procuring necessary services and
being able to attain preventive care. High Deductible plans aren't conjoined with significant
reductions in office visits, and lower performance for both appropriate and excessive non-
emergency care. While researching whether high deductibles impact our overall cost of
healthcare I was able to find an article by plus media solutions. In this article, it explains that ...
