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We all procrastinate from time to time, but there's a new survey showing that men are putting off doctor visits at an alarming rate.
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Healthcare expert Jeramy Tipton with Aflac⁽¹⁾ is here to share the findings on this, thanks for joining us, Jeramy, what are the top takeaways from this survey?
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Thanks for having me, so this year's annual survey really showed more of the same, men are continuing to push the snooze button when it comes to their physical and mental health.
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Even with the new telemedicine and virtual doc options out there, we still saw less than 50 percent of men in this year's survey have actually participated in their routine wellness exam in the last 12 months.
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And a more concerning scenario is that 75 percent of men in this survey said that they had experienced some sort of behavioral or mental issue within the last 12 months.
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And many of those individuals aren't really talking to anyone about those challenges. - So why aren't men having routine checkups?
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Well we're procrastinators and I can say that because I am a man, but ultimately I'm sure there's a lot of reasons why men are delaying or avoiding those doctors visits.
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The biggest one in the survey is 40% of the men in the survey said that they were avoiding their doctors visits, because of out-of-pocket expenses that they were expecting, and 25 percent said they didn't have the insurance to cover that.
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But no matter the challenge or the reason why, it's really important for these yearly exams to take place, so they can stave off serious health issues that could be costly in the future.
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One of the biggest generational gaps that we saw in the survey is the younger generations, generation Z and millennials⁽²⁾.
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80% of those individuals in the survey said they had mental or behavioral health issues within the last 12 months.
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That's really concerning for us and concerning as an industry, and so you're seeing many companies in the insurance space, like Aflac, create benefits associated with mental health and behavioral health benefits.
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If we don't like to talk about health care issues, we definitely don't like to talk about our funerals or passing away, but 68% of men in the survey said that they didn't want to talk about life insurance or final expense.
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And that's a big component from a financial wellness perspective, but that first step is always getting those yearly checkups done.