Chronically ill U.S. patients often skip care due to costs

Chronically ill patients in the United States spend more out-of-pocket money, skip needed care, and report more medical errors than patients in seven other industrialized countries, according to a survey from the Commonwealth Fund. For the survey, researchers interviewed 7,500 people who had at least one chronic condition. The countries in the survey were Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Great Britain, the Netherlands, New Zealand and the United States. All of those surveyed had recently been hospitalized, had major surgery or a recent serious illness.