Strapped Americans scrimping on insurance

Scrimping to make ends meet, many Americans are cutting back on medical care to deal with rising costs and a worsening economy, according to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners. In a survey of 686 consumers, the Kansas City, Mo. group discovered that 22% have cut back on the number of trips they take to a doctor as a result of today’s economy. Eleven percent of respondents have reduced the number of prescription drugs they take or the dosage of these medications to stretch the prescription over a longer period of time. While consumers are trimming their medical costs, many of them haven’t changed their insurance policies, although some either reduced coverage or canceled it altogether: 85% kept their policies as is, 2% cut back on coverage, 1% fell behind on payments and 2% called off their coverage altogether. The rest of those polled didn’t have coverage or didn’t answer the question.. There were similar results for life insurance: 78% haven’t made changes to their policy. However, 1% reduced coverage, 2% lapsed on their payments and 3% canceled their policies. Others polled didn’t answer the question or didn’t have insurance.