Evidence for underuse of effective medical services around the world

CJEM Debate Series: #Copayment – Medical insurance is for non-routine events

“…Amazingly, you can't even find out which companies' treks are more or less expensive, or which of the treks that your insurer will cover! Overuse of medical services is a major problem in wealthy countries (especially in the United States, but also in Canada), [1][2][3] and contributes not only to skyrocketing expenditures, but also to major medical harm because of false-positive test findings, incidentalomas, and overdiagnosis. [4][5][6] At the same time, overuse may crowd out spending for needed medical services, 7 contributing to the parallel problem of underuseparticularly for those who most need such care such as the poor and those with chronic illnesses.…”

Salud pública y nuevos derechos individuales a la salud: entre la utopía y la realidad

“…Este mal diagnóstico de preferencia contribuye al uso excesivo (y subutilizado) cuando los médicos ofrecen un servicio que es incorrecto para ese paciente individual. Glasziou et al (2017) indican cómo la infrautilización (la imposibilidad de prestar un servicio de salud con una alta probabilidad de mejorar la calidad o la cantidad de vida, que sea asequible y que el paciente hubiera deseado) es responsable de una considerable morbilidad y mortalidad evitables. Las causas de la infrautilización son múltiples: acceso inadecuado, fallos en el sistema de salud, que los médicos no sean conscientes o no estén cualificados para proporcionar las intervenciones requeridas y que los pacientes no accedan a ellos o los rechacen.…”

Health System, Health Equity

“…During the last few decades, many papers have been published in different medical journals regarding this issue. The latest of those articles are four papers about overuse and underuse of medical services and procedures around the world, published in Lancet in January 2017 (3)(4)(5)(6).…”