Her position is, it lowers overall costs as it stops people from running to the doctor for every little sniffle. My position was that though I am sure there is a small percentage of such people, that I felt that by and large people are not to eager to go to the doctor unnecessarily. Personally, even with insurance coverage without large deductible (such as Medicare, which I am now on) I am more apt not to go to the doctor when perhaps I should.
She was of the opinion that the opposite was the norm.
I do feel that high deductibles discourage people from getting medical care. In some cases, it may have been for something that was real but would have gotten better on its own ("every little sniffle"), but in other cases it may be something that gets worse without prompt treatment.
We have a $3000 deductible on our non-ACA policy. Early in the year before the deductible is met I do hate to have go appointments where I have to pay it all myself (discounted of course). But, I do it as necessary.
I did just have an experience where I delayed. I had a minor knee problem about 2 months and then a few weeks later I had a pain behind my knee. I thought about going to see the orthopedic surgeon that my daughter has seen but it would be a couple of hundred bucks that I would have to pay for since the deductible wasn't met. Had the deductible been met I probably would have just made the appointment.
Instead I waited a few weeks to see if it would get better on its on. It didn't. So I finally decided to go to the Urgent Care center (which would have been $140). I got there and they immediately sent me to the ER because it might have been a blood clot in my leg.
I ended up going to the ER to have an ultrasound to see if I had a blood clot. I sort of hated doing it because I knew I still had about $1500 left on my deductible and was about to blow through it. But, we have $1500 so it wasn't a big issue I guess.
As it turned out 6 hours later, I had no blood clot (I know do have an appointment with the orthopedic surgeon for a probably hamstring injury). I am starting to see the EOBs. The hospital charged about $2500 which the in network discount knocked down to a little over a $1000.
The one that irritates me is that it turns out the ER doctor who charged $500 was out of network. It irritates me as he didn't even lay eyes on my until after I had the ultrasound. The order for the ultrasound was written by a doctor I never saw based upon my reported symptoms. The doctor I did see wasn't the one to read the ultrasound (there is a bill from him too) and he showed up only after I had the ultrasound to basically tell me that the report was the ultrasound was negative. So he charges $500 out of network (like I had any choice in the matter). The insurer says that there is a multi-plan discount for him as an out of network doctor and he has agreed to accept $450. This is irritating since we had zero choice of doctor in this situation and we were in an in network hospital.
Well, I've digressed but we've now blown through the deductible. But, if the deductible had been met earlier I probably would have gone in sooner rather than waiting. As it turns out, waiting was probably fine for a hamstring injury but it wouldn't have been great if I had had a blood clot.