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Skipping health care to save money costs the U.S. billions more later

Unaffordable coverage is pushing Americans to forgo care they'd otherwise get. Untreated conditions add a lasting financial burden to the system

Erin Clark for The Boston Globe via Getty Images

Many Americans skip doctor visits, delay prescriptions, and put off screenings every year because they can't afford them. More than a third of adults went without needed care in the past year, according to KFF, and the number is rising as marketplace premiums climb and millions lose or downgrade coverage.

The more than a million people who dropped marketplace coverage this year, and the millions more who saw their premiums jump by double digits, are now the ones most likely to skip a mammogram, stop filling a prescription, or put off a doctor's visit until a manageable problem becomes an emergency. Across every condition researchers have studied, people who delay care cost the healthcare system more than people who get treated on time.

"A screening that gets skipped or a therapy that gets paused rarely stays contained to a single moment," said Jennifer Noonan, vice president of clinical strategy at Accessia Health. "It resurfaces later as a........

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