Even Insured Can Face Crushing Medical Debt, Study Finds

[eridani]

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/06/upshot/lost-jobs-houses-savings-even-insured-often-face-crushing-medical-debt.html

The number of uninsured Americans has fallen by an estimated 15 million since 2013, thanks largely to the Affordable Care Act. But a new survey, the first detailed study of Americans struggling with medical bills, shows that insurance often fails as a safety net. Health plans often require hundreds or thousands of dollars in out-of-pocket payments — sums that can create a cascade of financial troubles for the many households living paycheck to paycheck.

Carrie Cota learned the hard way that health insurance does not guarantee financial security. Ms. Cota, a 56-year-old travel agent from Rosamond, Calif., learned she had the autoimmune disease lupus in 2007. She ran up thousands of dollars in medical and dental bills and ended up losing her job, and eventually her house.

“I had to move in temporarily with my ex-husband,” she said in a recent interview. “I’m staying with him until I can figure out what to do.”

In the new poll, conducted by The New York Times and the Kaiser Family Foundation, roughly 20 percent of people under age 65 with health insurance nonetheless reported having problems paying their medical bills over the last year. By comparison, 53 percent of people without insurance said the same.

These financial vulnerabilities reflect the high costs of health care in the United States, the most expensive place in the world to get sick. They also highlight a substantial shift in the nature of health insurance. Since the late 1990s, insurance plans have begun asking their customers to pay an increasingly greater share of their bills out of pocket though risindeductibles and co-payments. The Affordable Care Act, signed by President Obama in 2010, protected many Americans from very high health costs by requiring insurance plans to be more comprehensive, but at the same time it allowed or even encouraged increases in deductibles.

https://kaiserfamilyfoundation.files.wordpress.com/2016/12/8806-the-burden-of-medical-debt-results-from-the-kaiser-family-foundation-new-york-times-medical-bills-survey1.pdf

Comment by Don McCanne of PNHP: These excerpts from the Kaiser Family Foundation/New York Times Medical Bills Survey of adults 18 to 64 confirm once again that our multi-payer health insurance system falls far short in preventing financial insecurity for those with medical needs. This survey expands on our knowledge base by demonstrating the deplorable consequences of the financial hardships created by this system.

These deficiencies cannot be corrected by merely tweaking our current dysfunctional financing system. A massive infusion of funds would be required under the current system if we wish to reduce the negative financial consequences, but the political and policy communities currently oppose any increase in spending. In fact, their current approach is to control spending by increasing barriers to care through unaffordable cost sharing and narrower networks designed to reduce access. Obstructing access to care might reduce spending, but preventing beneficial health care is the opposite of what a health care financing system should be doing.

Think of that. It is bad enough that people have the misfortune to suffer medical disorders, yet we add to that grief by perpetuating a system that dumps personal financial hardship on top of their medical misfortunes.

The efficiencies of a single payer system would save enough to more assuredly enable access to appropriate health care services by removing cost-sharing barriers to care, not to mention the benefit that absolutely everyone would be included. What are we waiting for? The status quo is unequivocally unacceptable.

[Art_from_Ark]

1. Let me be the first to K&R this post

[HeiressofBickworth]

2. I've heard of this for years

I used to be a bankruptcy paralegal (early in my paralegal career). I worked for a closed-panel law firm (only represented certain unions at low rates as part of their benefits) All of my clients were members of unions so one would suppose they had good health care benefits. But there they were, buried in medical debt and looking for help from the bankruptcy laws. And that isn't really an easy choice. There are laws that protect certain assets (car for work, household goods not over a certain dollar amount) and filing a homestead only protected a small amount of equity in a home. Everything else was up for sale to satisfy creditors. I even had one client who had to give up his dog because it was used for breeding and selling pups which was an asset not protected by any of the existing laws. And this was in the 1970's!!!!!! Nothing seems to have changed, despite the Affordable Care Act.

[nxylas]

3. I don't need a study to tell me that

It's the reason my wife and I left the US for the country of my birth.

[raccoon]

4. If you haven't seen Michael Moore's SICKO movie, watch it.

The movie is about the insured who suffer from excessive medical expenses.

Recd.

[Scuba]

5. Using our precious healthcare dollars to fatten the bank accounts of corporate investors ...

... in London, Tokyo and Hong Kong isn't just bad fiscal policy, it's immoral.

[spooky3]

6. This is a finding E. Warren's research reported prior to her becoming Sen

The next phase of health care reform must deal with our outrageous costs that are nearly double what are charged in other developed nations.

[Old Codger]

7. I am

in the process of preparing to undergo what most likely will be one day and a night in hospital after a medium surgery, the bill I have seen is $58,000.00, this does not include anesthetist,meds or the Dr. fees

[CTyankee]

8. If you are indeed old, wouldn't Medicare cover most of this?

I['m old, too, and have a Medicare supplement policy which covers anything that Medicare doesn't cover fully and makes up the difference. I'm in pretty good shape but I worry as I get older...

[Old Codger]

9. I am indeed old

And I do have medicare and they do cover most of it, but that isn't really the point, my point is that the hospitals are way to costly. It makes no difference who is paying for it, whether Medicare or some other insurance program. The ACA made insurance more available but really has no overall effect on medical costs, it just shifted the burden of the cost of insurance from the insured to the taxpayers by subsidizing the insurance. There is no incentive that I can see in any of it to cut medical costs.

Now going back to my situation, in July my wife was diagnosed with breast cancer, ended up having a total mastectomy, in order to have some assurance that it would not recur she underwent Chemo, the total cost of this has been over $100,000.00 shortly afterwards I was diagnosed with bladder cancer, fortunately it was caught early and appears to be not too much chance of any long term effect ..still ended up costing well into the $30,000.00 bracket for what amounted to an outpatient procedure, in and out same day..Medicare pays 80% or more but still leaves a healthy chunk to the patient, I do not have enough income to be able to afford any decent supplement and make too much to be eligible for any assistance so now I will probably spend the rest of my life paying this off as I can and spending considerable time arguing with the hospital as to how much I can pay each month,meanwhile as I am in fact elderly health issues are pretty common and I doubt this is the last of my medicals needs but I am forced to delay or completely ignore other health issues that can be tolerated because I cannot afford to have them treated..

[CTyankee]

10. Oh, I'm so sorry this happened to you and your wife.

You might try to get in touch with United Health Care about their supplentary plans. I think they have varying plans and the costs vary as well. There may be something that you CAN afford. It's unacceptable that you have to live this way.

Hope you get some help with this. Even if it lessens the worry and anxiety you must be experiencing now...

best of luck to you and your wife

[Old Codger]

12. Thank you

As a last resort there are steps that can be taken, I have spent my entire life working and paying my own way and will attempt to continue to do so until it is no longer viable at which point I will look seriously at getting some assistance. My situation and many many others all over the country is not unique it is a common everyday thing, people losing their homes and being harassed constantly by bill collectors, we need real truly comprehensive health care/cost legislation, we will not get that via the current political establishment... Something needs to happen, our country in many ways does not even measure up to third world standards.

[aikoaiko]

11. Particularly true for the chronically ill.

Its like bailing our a boat where for every bucket you bail, 1+ bucket of water creeps in.

Eventually, you just give up.