Soapbox... Each year hospitals lose billions in unpaid bad debt write-offs. These debts are primarily the result of care given to uninsured and under-insured people living in the US. Hospitals dont just write off that money without trying to recoup as much of it as possible. One way they recoup their losses is when for-profit hospitals simply write them off at tax time. Non-profit hospitals cite their losses to state and federal programs, such as Medicare and Medicaid, when they ask the government for higher reimbursement for all services. Also, non-profit hospitals are given billions of dollars each year from tax payers through a federal program to help pay off individuals unpaid debts. Loss of tax revenue and increasingly greater Medicare/Medicaid reimbursement impacts each taxpaying citizen in this country. Hospitals also make up those losses by across-the-board increases for all of their services; meaning that your insurance company must pay out greater claims. As a result your premiums rise. The Affordable Care Act is a program that will address these losses by making sure as many people have insurance coverage as possible. A lot of people are complaining about the ACA; saying that they are being forced to buy new insurance after their old insurance was cancelled. They also complain that their premiums are too high. First off, their old insurance policies are being cancelled because they do not meet the minimum requirements for insurance coverage under the ACA. I like to call these junk policies. These insurance policies may have super-low premiums, but they leave the consumer vulnerable to having high deductibles, sharp restrictions on coverage, and bureaucratic nightmare processes for getting a claim paid. These people may have had insurance but they are under-insured. Regarding high premiums... I have seen a couple of articles floating around about people who are being forced to pay high premiums for new insurance coverage. But what these articles NEVER tell you is that the people live in states where the governors and legislators REFUSED federal money to expand Medicaid--allowing people to make up to 400% of the federal poverty limit and still get assistance with paying their premiums. Health care costs in the US are among the highest on the planet. Hospitals, physicians, pharmaceutical companies, home health companies, nursing homes, medical equipment companies, ambulance services, and specialty clinics are all trying to get a piece of the $2.8 TRILLION that will be spent on health care this year. The genie is out of the bottle. Health care related companies are not going to suddenly agree to lower the amount of money they charge for care. Health care costs are the number one reason that people declare bankruptcy in the US. Minimum wage earners who make around $15,000 a year cant pay for insurance and certainly cant pay for their own health care out of pocket. Health care is a necessity of everyone. It doesnt matter if you have insurance or not, when you get a kidney stone and think youre going to die, youre going to go to an ER. And youll sign whatever paper is placed in front of you--promising to pay any and all costs--just to make the pain go away. So, if people must have health care--and they do--and health care related companies arent going to suddenly reduce their prices and agree to take in less money, then the federal government HAD to step in and do something. It is much more efficient for the federal government to help pay peoples premiums than it is for the federal government to try to pay off the entire health care costs of individuals illnesses. For example... If you are diagnosed with breast cancer and have no insurance coverage (or if you have really bad coverage), you will likely require surgery, chemo and/or radiation, as well as ongoing care for several years. If the government is helping you pay insurance premiums by contributing $400 a month to pay your premiums, then the government is paying much less than if it assumed the whole cost of your care, which could run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars. The sickening truth is that prior to the ACA, uninsured and under-insured people who developed these kinds of illnesses were much more likely to receive inadequate and incomplete care than insured people. First off, if you are uninsured/under-insured, you may not be getting regular mammograms to detect cancer early--when it is more easily and cheaply treatable. Secondly, when your cancer has grown to a point where you must do something, the treatment is very expensive. And if you are uninsured/under-insured, those treatment options may simply not be available to you. Surgery is often used to remove breast tumors. But follow-up chemo/radiation is also needed. Many health care teams will look at a persons insurance coverage to determine what path of treatment to follow. If it is unlikely that youll be able to afford chemo/radiation, there is a good chance that simply removing the tumor wont be successful. Maybe it will return. Maybe it will spread to other areas. If the tumor is large enough and has been untreated for too long, the surgeon may decide that it is futile to operate--especially if youre not going to be able to get follow-up chemo/radiation. They may very well recommend hospice care instead of surgery. People should not have to die simply because they are uninsured. The ACA is the most efficient means that has been put before us for providing health care coverage to as many people as possible
Posted on: Sun, 03 Nov 2013 14:11:29 +0000
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