A survey by the Center for Studying Health System Change
found that nearly 20 percent of Americans report having difficulty
paying medical bills. The
global economic crunch is forcing a growing number of Americans to
scale back on medical care. Consumers are pushing off seemingly less-urgent services in the hope that
their financial health will improve.

But the danger, say physicians, is
that the short-term savings may translate into more severe long-term
health implications. Nationwide, the number of consumers who went
without a prescription, tapped into retirement savings to pay for
health care or skipped a doctor visit for themselves or a child has
risen since last year, according to a survey released this summer by
the Rockefeller Foundation and Time magazine. After nearly a decade of
steady — often double-digit — increases in drug spending, the
research company IMS Health this summer recorded the first actual
decline.                                                                                                                                                                                                San Diego dermatology doctor