Patients With Asthma and COPD Lost Ground in Accessing Care | Nutrition Fit

Over the past 20 years, patients with asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) have seen next to no improvement in problems of delayed care because of cost or unaffordable medications, despite wider insurance coverage since the passage of the Affordable Care Act, a new analysis shows.

The long-view analysis illuminates the ongoing problem for people with these chronic diseases despite health care legislation that was considered historic.

“That long-term scope puts recent improvements in better context – whereas we have made improvements in coverage in recent years due to the Affordable Care Act, the longer-term picture is that people with asthma and COPD are struggling to obtain needed medical care and medications despite a substantial reduction in the uninsurance rate,” said Adam Gaffney, MD, MPH, assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, Boston who authored the paper with David Himmelstein, MD, professor of public health at City University of New York–Hunter College. The findings were published in Chest.

Researchers examined data from 1997 to 2018 for 76,843 adults with asthma and 30,548 adults with COPD, from the National Health Interview Survey, an annual survey by the Centers for Disease Control that is based on in-person interviews and health questionnaires completed by an adult in each family.

Insurance Coverage Up, Patients Losing Ground

During 1997 and 2018, there was an overall 9.3% decrease in the rate of adults with asthma who were uninsured, a significant improvement (P < .001). Between the pre- and post-ACA years, there was modest improvement in those putting off care because of cost, a drop of 3.8%, or going without prescriptions, a drop of 4.0%. But those improvements didn’t correspond to the 7.2% drop in the uninsured rate after the AC , contributing to the finding that there was no significant improvement over the 20 years.

For adults with COPD, it was a slightly different story. Over those 2 decades, the uninsured rate dropped by 9.5%. But the number of patients foregoing care due to cost actually rose by 3.4%, which wasn’t statistically significant, but the rate of those unable to afford needed medications rose significantly by 7.8%.

Researchers found there was improvement between the pre- and post-ACA years among COPD patients putting off care and going without medications (decreases of 6.9% and 4.5%, respectively). That adhered fairly closely with the improvement in the uninsured rate, which fell by 7.1%. But over the 20-year study period, the percentage of those needing medications they couldn’t afford increased significantly by 7.8%. The rate of those delaying or foregoing care also increased, though this amount was not statistically significant.

After the ACA was created, Blacks and Hispanics with asthma had greater improvement in obtaining insurance, compared with other racial and ethnic groups. But over the 20 years, like all racial and ethnic groups, they saw no statistically significant improvement in rates of “inadequate coverage,” defined in this study as either being uninsured, having to delay care because of cost, or being unable to afford needed medications.

For those with COPD, only Whites had statistically significant improvement in the number of patients with inadequate coverage after the ACA, researchers found.

So despite obtaining insurance, patients lost ground in managing their disease because of the growing cost of care and medication.

“Medication affordability has actually worsened for those with COPD – a worrisome development given that medication nonadherence worsens outcomes for these vulnerable patients,” Gaffney said. “Policy makers should return to the issue of national health care reform. Both uninsurance and underinsurance undermines pulmonologists’ ability to care for their patients with chronic disease. A health care system without financial barriers, in contrast, might well improve these patients’ outcomes, and advance health equity.”

Insurance Is No Guarantee to Access

Daniel Ouellette, MD, FCCP, a pulmonary and critical care specialist at Henry Ford Health System in Detroit, said it’s not surprising that access to care remains a problem despite the Affordable Care Act.

“It covers the hospitalizations and ER visits – patients in this segment of society were getting cared for there anyway,” he said. “And what the ACA didn’t always do was provide adequate prescription coverage or cover these outpatient gaps. So even though the patients have the ACA they still have unaffordable prescriptions, they still can’t buy them, and they still can’t pay for their outpatient clinic if they have a $500 or $1,000 deductible.” These patients also continue to struggle with more fundamental issues that affect access to care, such as lack of transportation and poor health literacy.

At Henry Ford, pharmacists work with patients to identify medications covered by their insurance and work to find discounts and coupons, he said. As for the ACA, “it’s a good first start, but we really need to identify what its limitations are.” Locally driven, less expensive solutions might be a better way forward than costly federal initiatives.

Brandon M. Seay, MD, a pediatric pulmonologist and sleep specialist at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, said the findings dovetail with what he has seen in the pediatric population.

“From my experience, the ACA has helped patients get their foot in the door and has helped patients decrease the possibility of serious financial burden in emergency situations, but the ability to afford medications has not changed very much,” he said. When patients struggle with sufficient prescription coverage, he helps patients fight for coverage and connects them with prescription assistance programs such as GoodRx.

“Instead of focusing on the access of insurance to patients, the goal of the system should be to make care as affordable as possible,” Seay said. “Access does not meet the needs of a patient if they cannot afford what they have access to. Transition to a nationalized health system where there is no question of access could help to drive down prescription drug prices by allowing the government to negotiate with pharmaceutical companies more adequately by removing the ‘middle man’ of the private insurance industry.”

The investigators reported no financial conflicts. Ouellette and Seay reported no financial conflicts.

This article originally appeared in Chest Physician.