High prices at the pump complicate health choices

Cost pressures may lead to less driving and fewer motor vehicle fatalities, although access to care may be jeopardized, too.

By Victoria Stagg Elliott, AMNews staff. Aug. 11, 2008.

Ben Brewer, MD, a family physician in Forrest, Ill., has noticed that some patients are missing more appointments than usual. Others seem to forgo the office visit altogether, instead waiting until they're sick enough to call a local free ambulance to take them to a hospital.

With record-breaking gas prices and no public transportation in this rural area about two hours south of Chicago, some of his patients have admitted they can't afford the drive to the office. If they do, they say, filling their gas tanks cuts into the money they otherwise would use to cover the co-pays for medical services.

"They've been squeezed by these prices, and it's been more noticeable since it hit four bucks a gallon," he said.

Dr. Brewer and other physicians increasingly are concerned that high prices for gas and other essentials may leave patients unable to access health care.

Data from the National Poll on Children's Health released last year by the University of Michigan C.S. Mott Children's Hospital in Ann Arbor found that 6% of parents postponed a medical visit or the purchase of medication for their kids in response to the cost of fuel.

Early indications also suggest that high gas prices are affecting the ability of some parts of the health system to provide care. The National Assn. for Home Care & Hospice issued a statement in June warning that fuel costs were jeopardizing the capability of nurses and other health care workers to visit patients, particularly in rural areas.