Study: Half of Obamacare Customers Skipping Doctor Visits to Cut Costs

Obamacare customers are skipping doctors’ visits to cut costs, according to a new study.

The study shows that 50 percent of people who buy healthcare plans through Obamacare marketplaces say they are trying to be more cost-conscious with their healthcare services by cutting back on doctors’ visits, CNBC reported.

In that same study, only 33 percent of people with any form of insurance reported cutting back on health care to manage costs.

The study also found that lower-income Obamacare customers with salaries of less than $25,000 per year are more likely to use urgent care facilities or “minute clinics” for health care compared with Obamacare customers with higher earnings.

The marketing research firm GfK, which conducted the study, found that 27 percent of lower-income Obamacare customers visited a walk-in clinic within the past year, compared with 12 percent of all Obamacare customers.

One out of every four Obamacare customers said they switched to a lower-cost healthcare plan to save money, but only six percent of those customers reported shopping around for healthcare providers and comparing prices.

That figure is only slightly higher than the four percent of all people with insurance who said they shopped around for providers based on price.

GfK’s survey included 921 insured adults, with 48 of those adults buying health care through an Obamacare exchange.  The research firm added 253 exchange customers to the sample to provide broader findings.