As Americans tighten their belts in response to a deteriorating economy, many are increasingly reluctant to seek medical attention because of the cost. Press reports suggest that this is bad news in that people are depriving themselves of needed care, but that's not always the case. There's at least the possibility of good news in this trend.
Just as rising gas prices encouraged the use of bikes or public transportation, the current squeeze could be a teachable moment where consumers learn how to decide what care is truly needed and how to get it at the best price.
Unfortunately, those in medicine and government provide little counsel on how to prudently prioritize.
Instead the usual interest groups conjure up pictures of people dying needlessly because they're denied needed care (which may be happening more now, though that's very hard to document).
Respected reformers say that Medicare spending could be cut by a fifth without jeopardizing health status if the right things were done at the right time. Doctors report that many of their patients aren't sick enough to require a physician's care.
When people who are awakened in the predawn hours with an earache and hustle off the to emergency room rather than taking a pain pill and gritting their teeth until the neighborhood walk-in clinic at the local pharmacy opens in the morning, they're likely wasting both money and medical resources. Often, they simply don't know any better because of the biases built into our system.
One of the chronic frustrations of today's situation is that no one is making a serious attempt - beyond counsel to use more generic drugs - to teach patients how to use the system more efficiently.
If the American Medical Association really wanted to make things better rather than merely enhancing the income of its members, it would reprogram the dollars that buy commercials where physicians express their concerns about people who go without needed care because they're uninsured (sidestepping the obvious question about why doctors don't simply provide such care free if they're all that worried) and instead begin an education campaign about how to decide when a doctor visit is truly necessary and when it can be safely skipped.
The media could play a similar role, doing medical stories not unlike those providing counsel on how to prepare nutritious meals despite a shrinking food budget.