High healthcare costs force chronically ill patients to skip care, ...

A new KFF survey of more than 25,000 adults finds that high healthcare costs are pushing people with chronic conditions to skip or delay care. About half of respondents with one or more chronic illnesses reported skipping or postponing care in the past year, and for a third of them, the reason was cost. The report also points to payer barriers such as prior authorizations as obstacles to access. Nearly a third of those managing chronic illness said they struggle to afford medical bills, leading to delayed appointments and worse medication adherence. Drew Altman, KFF’s founding president and CEO, said the system is failing the “take care of the sick” test, hitting the chronically ill and uninsured especially hard.