Fewer in U.S. delaying needed medical care, survey finds

WASHINGTON – The number of Americans who put off needed medical care fell substantially last year, according to a new survey that provides one of the fullest pictures to date of how the federal health law may be improving not only insurance coverage but also access to health care.

From 2012 to 2014, the share of consumers delaying a recommended test or treatment or not filling a prescription fell by nearly a third. And the percentage who reported problems with medical bills fell by almost a quarter.

Those are the first declines ever recorded by the biennial national survey by the nonprofit Commonwealth Fund, which began asking Americans about the affordability of medical care a decade ago.

“These declines are remarkable and unprecedented in the survey’s history,” said Sara Collins, the study’s lead author. “They indicate that the Affordable Care Act is beginning to help people afford the health care they need.”

The rise in reported access to care parallels a major expansion in health insurance coverage that began in 2014 through the health law often called Obamacare.

The law offers most Americans who don’t get coverage through an employer the chance to buy a health plan on a new state-based marketplace where insurers must meet basic standards and cannot turn away customers. Low- and moderate-income consumers can get subsidies to offset the cost of their premiums.

In about half the states, very poor Americans can get government Medicaid coverage, largely for free.