Global Economic Uncertainty Makes Affordable Health Care a Universal Challenge for Consumers: Deloitte Study
Consumers report economic slowdown has impacted their health care spending
Key findings to be addressed during webcast on June 21st at 2:00 p.m. E.T.
WASHINGTON, June 21, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Rising health care costs, coupled with the current state of the economy, have prompted many consumers across the globe to delay care, alter household spending and worry about their ability to pay for future health care costs according to the 4th annual Deloitte Center for Health Solutions "2011 Survey of Health Care Consumers."
"We have been examining consumers' interactions with the health care system since 2008. A new trend has emerged this year suggesting that economic uncertainty has clearly altered spending habits with many consumers reporting an impact on their out-of-pocket health care expenses," said Paul Keckley, Ph.D., executive director, Deloitte Center for Health Solutions. "Regardless of the type of health care system, government-run or private, consumers around the world are feeling the pinch."
Deloitte surveyed more than 15,000 health care consumers in 12 different countries including Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Mexico, Portugal, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States during April and May.
In the United States, three in four (75 percent) consumers say the recent economic slowdown has impacted their health care spending. Four in 10 (41 percent) are being more cautious about it, 20 percent cut back on spending, and 13 percent have reduced it considerably. In addition, 63 percent say their monthly health care spending limits their household's ability to purchase other essentials such as housing, groceries, fuel and education. To save money, 36 percent of prescription medication users have asked their doctor to prescribe a generic drug instead of a brand name drug. These findings follow Deloitte's, "The Hidden Costs of U.S. Health Care for Consumers: A Comprehensive Analysis," published in March 2011, which revealed consumers spend $363 billion more on health care than traditionally reported, outpacing housing and utility costs as a discretionary household expense.
Additionally, one in four (25 percent) U.S. consumers skipped seeing a doctor when sick or injured. Of those consumers who decided not to see a doctor in the past year, those that did so due to costs ranged from a high of 49 percent in the United States, followed by Belgium (39 percent), China (35 percent) and Mexico (34 percent), to a low of 5 percent in Canada and 7 percent in the United Kingdom and Luxembourg.
More than half of all respondents from the 12 countries surveyed, with the exception of the United Kingdom (24 percent) and Canada (39 percent), also confirmed that household spending on health care limits their ability to spend on other household essentials. Additionally, between 4 in 10 and 5 in 10 respondents experienced an increase in household spending on health care in the past year with the exception of the United Kingdom (22 percent), Canada (29 percent) and China (37 percent).
Further highlighting the anxiety over escalating health care costs, consumers were mixed in assessing their household capacity to handle future expenses. The least amount of confidence was in Portugal (18 percent), followed by Mexico (22 percent), Brazil (22 percent) and the United States (23 percent). Nearly one-third of consumers in Switzerland (27 percent), Germany (30 percent), Belgium (32 percent), China (35 percent) and Canada (39 percent) felt secure in their ability to handle future health care costs as did 41 percent of consumers in the United Kingdom and Luxemburg.
"Three core shared beliefs became apparent this year throughout our global survey: consumers remain largely confused about their health care system; grade their system as underperforming relative to what they know of other systems; and believe spending is wasteful in their country's health system," said Bob Go, global managing director, life sciences and health care, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited (DTTL). "More often, consumers' opinions are based on prior personal experience rather than a systematic view, perhaps due to its complexity."
Consumers confused about their health care system
Most consumers do not have a strong understanding of how their health care system works. Consistently across the 12 countries surveyed, with the exception of Portugal (17 percent) and Luxembourg (16 percent), around one in three consumers felt they understood the system well. Three in four U.S. consumers (76 percent) feel they do not have a strong understanding of how the health care system works; this perception has not changed in recent years (77 percent in 2010, 74 percent in 2009).
Report card grades of health care systems vary widely
Consumers graded the overall performance of their health care systems very differently. The health care systems in Luxembourg (69 percent), Belgium (57 percent), Switzerland (52 percent), France (51 percent) and Canada (50 percent) all received a grade of "A" (excellent) or "B" (very good) from more than half of consumers in those countries. Only 22 percent of U.S. consumers, 18 percent of Portuguese, 15 percent of Mexican and 8 percent of Brazilian consumers graded their country's health care systems in similar fashion. Conversely, 57 percent of consumers in Brazil, 44 percent in Mexico, 38 percent in the United States and 33 percent of consumers in Portugal rated their health care system's performance as 'failing' ("D" or "F").
Approximately four in 10 consumers in Belgium, Canada, Germany, Switzerland and the United Kingdom (24 percent in the United States) felt that their health care system was "superior to most other systems." Similarly, around 4 in 10 consumers in Belgium, Canada, Germany and Switzerland (37 percent in United States) believed that the quality of care in their country's health care system is comparable to the best in the world. This is in stark contrast to consumers in Brazil, Mexico, Portugal and China where only around 1 in 10 felt likewise about the performance and quality of their country's health
care system.
Consumers are uniformly negative in their judgment about the success of respective governments in
balancing priorities in their health care systems with less than one in five consumers in all countries agreeing with the proposition that ''government is doing a good job balancing priorities in the health care system."
Consumers identify waste in the system
Many consumers saw health care spending in their health care systems as wasteful. Specifically, in the United States, consumers blame redundant paperwork (55 percent), individuals not taking responsibility for their own health (49 percent), defensive medicine (46 percent), lack of adherence to evidence-based approaches (40 percent), and extreme measures taken at the end of life to extend life for a short period of time (35 percent) as the top causes for wasteful spending.
"Despite the challenges consumers observe with their health care system, most still believe it is possible to both improve quality and decrease costs simultaneously," said Keckley. "Technology-enabled solutions are widely thought to be part of the solution."
Consumers seek technology solutions to manage their health
- Consumers are highly interested in using medical devices to monitor their conditions and send information electronically to their doctors, ranging from a low of 46 percent of consumers in Belgium to a high of 79 percent of consumers in Mexico. In the United States 61 percent of consumers confirmed interest.
- Consumers in Brazil (43%), China (47%) and Mexico (50%) are very likely to use their smart phones or PDAs for health care monitoring. Consumers in France (65%), Germany (64%) and Belgium (63%) are not at all likely to do so. In the United States 19 percent were very likely to use their phones for this purpose and 48 percent were not at all likely to do so.
- Less than 1 in 5 consumers surveyed said they maintain a personal health record (PHR) electronically, with the exception of consumers in China where 1 in 3 have such a record. The percentage of U.S. consumers who maintain a PHR in some type of electronic format remains low, but is increasing gradually: 8 percent in 2008, 9 percent in 2009, 10 percent in 2010, and 11 percent in this year's report.
- Consumers were concerned that an internet-based PHR might put privacy and security of personal health or medical information at risk. The degree of concern ranged from a low of 19 percent in Luxembourg to a high of 50 percent in Germany and Mexico. In the United States 38 percent of consumers expressed similar concerns.
Consumers are also open to alternative approaches to traditional health care such as visiting retail clinics or traveling outside their local community for health care:
- Of the countries that have a retail medicine sector, more than half of consumers in Belgium (50 percent), China (51 percent) and Portugal (51 percent) said that they had used a walk-in or retail setting for non-urgent care. Consumers in Canada (32 percent), Mexico (32 percent), the United Kingdom (22 percent), Brazil (21 percent), the United States (19 percent) and Switzerland (16 percent) also said they had used these services.
- The percent of U.S. consumers (19 percent) using retail-clinics in the past year is higher than in previous years (15 percent in 2010 and 13 percent in 2009).
- Between 1 in 10 and 3 in 10 consumers traveled outside of their local areas for care in the past year and a very small number had traveled outside of their home country for medical care. In the United States, approximately 1 in 4 (25 percent) say they would consider traveling outside the country to have a necessary hospital procedure, (22 percent) say maybe and 3 percent are definite); 75 percent say it is highly unlikely that they would travel to a foreign country for care
- Additionally, 39 percent of U.S. respondents report they would definitely travel to a hospital located outside their local town or city (e.g., in a major city or different city) for necessary care if that distant hospital was known to provide better quality care or faster access to services; 32 percent would travel the distance for elective care.
"The findings of our report identify three global trends that suggest health system leaders must think of patients as consumers: clinical innovations are driving solutions to medical problems that enable consumers to take care of themselves; governments and employers face shrinking budgets while health cost obligations are soaring and consumers are paying attention to health care as never before," concluded Keckley. "As health reform takes hold in countries like the U.S., our studies identify significant opportunity to engage consumers more effectively and address their unmet needs. It requires policymakers and industry stake holders to align interests toward their engagement as they undergo the transition from patients to consumers."
For an overview of key findings from the Deloitte Center for Health Solutions "2011 Survey of Health Care Consumers," register for the webcast, "A Global Context for Health Care Consumerism – Insights and Opportunities," scheduled for June 21st at 2:00 p.m. ET.:
Methodology
The Deloitte Center for Health Solutions surveyed health care consumers in Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Mexico, Portugal, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States in April and May. Participants were asked about behaviors before attitudes within each topic area to reduce response bias. The sample was nationally representative of each country with respect to age and gender. The sample in the United States and Canadian surveys was further adjusted for income and geography.
A core set of common questions were asked in each country, supplemented by questions unique to each country's health care system and consumer experience. Across all European and South American countries, the response margin of error was +/- 3.0% at a .95 confidence level. In Canada the response margin of error is +/- 2.0% at a .95 confidence level and in the United States it was +/- 1.6% at a .95 confidence level. A smaller cohort was surveyed in Luxembourg with a margin of error of +/- 4.1% at a .90 confidence level. A convenience sampling approach was adopted in China which reflects the nation's on-line population, taking into account age and gender.
For more information, please visit:
2011 Survey of Health Care Consumers: www.deloitte.com/us/2011consumerism
The Hidden Costs of U.S. Health Care for Consumers: www.deloitte.com/us/consumerhealthspending
Meet Paul Keckley: www.deloitte.com/us/paulkeckley
Meet Bob Go: www.deloitte.com/bobgo
Deloitte Center for Health Solutions: www.deloitte.com/centerforhealthsolutions
Health Reform Monday Memo: www.deloitte.com/us/healthmemos
About Deloitte
As used in this document, "Deloitte" means Deloitte LLP and its subsidiaries. Please see www.deloitte.com/us/about for a detailed description of the legal structure of Deloitte LLP and its subsidiaries. Certain services may not be available to attest clients under the rules and regulations of public accounting.
Marykate Reese
Public Relations
Deloitte
+1 203 257 0452
[email protected]
SOURCE Deloitte
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