Health should come before money, but research shows that some people avoid care because they are afraid of the costs.
A large proportion of general practitioners (81 percent) and pharmacists (89 percent) sometimes notice that patients have difficulty paying healthcare or medicine costs. Half of the GPs have even experienced that a patient takes 'irresponsible risks' by forgoing care, treatment or medication.
It is an increasing problem:more and more people are avoiding healthcare. This is what 53 percent of the general practitioners and 60 percent of the pharmacists think they see. 21 percent of GPs sometimes save up leftover medicines to provide to patients who cannot afford the medicines. Officially this is not allowed.
More information
These results come from a survey conducted by Omroep MAX in collaboration with the Association of Practitioners of General Practitioners and the pharmacists' organization KNMP. The results are discussed in The National Care Debate. January 23, 20.25 on NPO 2.
