The crisis in the US economy forces many Americans to refuse to take medication and recommended medical procedures, reports Fox News.. According to experts, in the future this trend will inevitably lead to an increase in the number of patients who need long-term and expensive treatment.

According to a telephone survey conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation, the number of Americans who said that they or their relatives were forced to give up some type of treatment for financial reasons increased from 29 to 36 percent. Approximately one third of respondents did not pass the recommended surveys or procedures, while a fifth of them admitted that, as a result of refusal of treatment, their condition worsened.

Another alarm is the reduction in the number of prescriptions issued: for the first time in the last 12 years, this indicator has decreased by 0.4 percent.

In addition, according to the Association of Financial Management of Health Care Institutions, the number of non-mandatory medical interventions fell by 1-2 percent in US hospitals: in previous years, their number increased by 3-4 percent annually.

At the same time, in medical institutions in the United States there is an influx of patients in need of emergency care, especially those who do not have health insurance. According to the representatives of the American Hospital Association, in the future the number of such appeals can significantly increase.

Medicinform. Net.

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