Millions of Americans are having to wait months for crucial medical care due to “declining health care inflation,” according to new reports.
This economic phenomenon – when the size of a product shrinks while prices stay the same or increase – has resulted in fewer and fewer medical appointments available while the number of patients increases, causing wait times to double in some parts of the country to reach 22 days.
Health care is just the latest industry to be hit by inflation: Americans are grappling with rising prices from the grocery store to the gas pump.
The contraction in health services may be caused by a combination of factors, but major contributors include a mass exodus of doctors since the pandemic, a surge in the number of people seeking medical care and changes to national insurance policies, which cover fewer health services.
The average wait time for a primary care physician in a metropolitan area is 26 days.
Inflation across all consumer goods has been rising in recent years. In February, there was a 3.2 percent increase across all products, driven primarily by housing and gasoline costs.
Dr. Robert Pearl, a professor at Stanford University and former CEO of The Permanente Medical Group, He told Axios:In reality, you are paying more for your health coverage, but you are not getting more, just less.
The average wait time for medical appointments in 2022 in 15 U.S. cities was 26 days, up from 24 days in 2017, according to a report by AMN Healthcare and Merritt Hawkins.
In some cities, such as New York, the average wait time for a primary care appointment doubled last year, from 11 days in 2023 to 22 days in 2024.
Axios poll from 2024 One in five Americans was found to have had to wait more than two months to see a primary care doctor.
And 43 percent of patients say they’ve had to wait longer to see a doctor since the pandemic.
One of the biggest contributing factors to this is the fact that, in most areas, more patients than ever are seeking routine medical appointments since the COVID-19 pandemic.
In the United States, 20 percent of adults reported that they did not receive medical care during the COVID-19 pandemic. The backlog that was created during that period is still being recovered, leading to more people returning to doctors’ offices, according to KFF. Health system tracker.
In New York, 50,000 new patients have joined NYC Health + Hospitals, a group that includes all of the city’s public hospitals, since 2021.
This has led the organization’s leaders to urge doctors to cut their in-person appointment times in half so they can see more patients. Gothamist reported.
Another important factor is the shortage of health personnel.
Tens of thousands of doctors have left the healthcare sector due to burnout caused by the pandemic. It is estimated that there are 117,000 doctors left their jobs between 2020 and 2021, as did countless staff members, such as nurses, technicians and social workers who help run the hospital.
Going into 2020, there were already shortages of healthcare workers across all specialties, but reports found that overall departures from the industry increased.
In 2018, about six percent of all health care workers left the workforce, but in 2020, about eight percent did so, many of whom left the job without another position secured, suggesting job dissatisfaction. a 2024 report from Johns Hopkins and Harvard found.
Studies The American Association of Medical Colleges estimates that the United States could have a shortage of 48,000 physicians by 2034.
In addition to staffing issues, insurance companies have cut back on the number of services they cover in their plans.
This increases out-of-pocket costs for doctor visits that used to be covered, according to State Representative Steven Smiththe deputy speaker of the New Hampshire House of Representatives.
About 30 percent of adults with insurance still had trouble paying medical bills, according to a 2019 survey. from the Commonwealth FundFifty-seven percent of respondents said their out-of-pocket insurance costs accounted for more than 10 percent of their household budget.
‘Instead of promoting smarter decisions, these plans have made care so expensive that many patients avoid getting the medical care they need,’ Dr. Pearl said.
For those who can afford it, private hospitals and clinics have been a solution. Others have turned to urgent care centres. that are expanding rapidlyinstead of going to a primary care physician.
But this ignores the large number of Americans who rely on public systems, like NYC Health + Hospitals, Dr. Pearl added.
This creates a vicious circle in which demand grows every year and care becomes scarcer. As a result, demand grows even faster.