High-deductible plans cause some to avoid care

Lower-income families with high-deductible health plans are more likely to delay or forego care due to cost than higher-income families who have similar coverage, according to researchers from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Overall, lower-income families were more likely to report that they had delayed or foregone care because of the cost, including care for an adult, care for a child, and operations or procedures.

Regardless of income, most participants reported that they would talk with their clinicians about delaying or making different plans in three hypothetical situations: a $100 blood test during a check-up, a $1,000 colonoscopy, and a $2,000 magnetic resonance imaging scan for back pain.