I asked my ophthalmologist on Friday how his business was doing in the recession, and he said it was stable. He noted, however, that his colleagues who specialize in Lasik surgery had seen a 60 percent drop in business.
Clearly, Lasik, which is not reimbursed by most insurance plans, is postponable in times when incomes drop; at least in the short run, it is a luxury good. Other medical procedures may even be inferior goods in the short run. A recent report on NBC noted that there has been a recent rise in vasectomies. Apparently some couples, fearing that their incomes may be permanently lower, wish to minimize the chances of having another child for whom it will be difficult to provide.
We know that plastic surgery is another luxury good. I wonder how one would classify still more medical procedures.
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With my complete lack of health insurance, all medical procedures are a luxury for me.
Interesting… I wonder whether the condom market is seeing a similar upswing? Does anyone out there have the IRI data to check this?
My GP said business was strong but he suspects people are coming in anticipating that they might be laid off. They want prescriptions for a year and one asked if he could be billed for two visits so his next one would be “free.”
I wish I’d had the foresight of these folks — planning for an uninsured birth is not proving to be a lot of fun.
Related to the rise in vasectomies, IVF is down. Most insurance do not cover it and those that do are quite limited.
I do know that after seeing the cost of having our second child, economics played a big part in deciding not to have a third. However, our first was -also- born during a downturn, and back then, considering a vasectomy wasn’t even on the table. Wonder if the numbers are higher for people who have just had two or three kids.
Another idea is that couples are worried about loosing health insurance if their income/job disappears. That was the case for my husband and I when he didn’t re-enlist in the military. A lot of our friends were getting vasectomies at that time because we had insurance. We were fearful that the surgery wouldn’t happen when we no longer had health insurance.
Heck, I just got married and the economy is making me want to get a vasectomy.