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From this morning’s Wall Street Journal ($$$ Subscription) on the swift reaction of health care to the financial meltdown.

The number of prescriptions filled in the U.S. fell 0.5% in the first quarter and a steeper 1.97% in the second, compared with the same periods in 2007 . . .

In a survey by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners last month, 22% of 686 consumers said that economy-related woes were causing them to go to the doctor less often. About 11% said they’ve scaled back on prescription drugs to save money. Some of the areas being hit include hip and knee replacements, mammograms, and visits to the emergency room . . .

And the impact?

Health-policy experts say that patients’ short-term care cutbacks could lead to more medical problems and higher spending down the road. As more people forgo screenings or wait until minor medical problems blow up into serious complications, hospital and emergency-room admissions could eventually spike.

These expert opinions, I would venture to say, are knee-jerk responses at best. The real question we should ask, at the risk of sounding harsh, is whether what we are seeing is a consumer-level pruning of the 30 percent fat in health care those same policy experts are always complaining about, or , in fact, the loss of real health care to those who can least afford it. To the media and the stories they feature, it is always bad news. But what impact will this increasing consumer sensitivity to cost really have when it comes to actual health outcomes?