Uninsured Patients Pay Far More for Hospital Care, Experts Say

[CShine]

WASHINGTON (AP) - Hospitals routinely charge uninsured people up to four times as much than patients with coverage, financial experts told lawmakers Thursday.
The overbilling largely is caused by hospitals that are trying to recoup the growing costs of indigent care. As a result, people who are financially strapped are subject to aggressive debt collectors.

"We're talking about people who don't have insurance because either they never had it, can't afford it, they've lost it," said Rep. Jim Greenwood, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on oversight and investigations.

"An average working man or woman treated at a hospital can be stuck with a bill that is double what managed care or government programs pay," said Greenwood, R-Pa. "Then, to add insult to injury, they are sometimes aggressively pursued for these inflated debts. This situation is unfair and unjust."

http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGBW6TAHVVD.html

[Tina H]

1. a partial solution

I have expressed my opinions about more sweeping solutions to America's healthcare crisis on other threads.

However, this part of the problem sounds simple to tackle, even in isolation of a more comprehensive reform. Specifically, they should just pass a law that says hospitals charge the same rates to everyone (at least unless and until there are collection difficulties). This modest measure won't insure the uninsured, but it will make sure that pricing is not discriminatory against the poor.

[Warpy]

2. Cost shifting has become incredibly ugly

It used to be that insurance plans would absorb increased costs from treating a small number of indigent patients. Now it's the "medically indigent," those without insurance, who are subsidizing the cost breaks given to insurance plans!

It's an evil system, and it is reaching a flashpoint as the number of uninsured patients has skyrocketed. Don't believe that 44 million number, folks. That was the number before Bush lost all those jobs, and before cost increases caused a lot of marginal workers with low pay to drop out of insurance plans.

Hospital charges to those least able to pay are three to five times what they charge insurance giants. Drug costs are two to seven times more.

Most of the people reading this are one chronic illness or one hefty rate incrase away from joining the uninsured. Think about it.

[napi21]

3. Believe it or not, discrimination is not the reason.

Payment rates from ins. companies, drug costs, supplies, etc. are all negotiated by the hospital. Most of the time, the payments don't cover ALL the hospital expenses. Since there's no way to get more $$ from the insurers until the next contract, the additional costs are passed on to whoever uses hospital services and isn't under any contract.

A very close froend is the Chief accountant for a very large hospital system. I asked her why in the world they charge $15.00 for an asprin. I tried to explain it above. BTW, the reason insurance companies get away with paying such low rates to the hospitals is because the hospitals need the business. If, for instance, they didn't work a deal with Blue Cross, all Blue Cross patients would be sent by their ins. co. to another hospital.

[Tina H]

6. Under my proposal, an insurance company would have two choices . . .

pay hospitals at uniform rates (regardless of the leverage that their market power currently gives them)

or

leave the US market in protest of the uniform rates law.


Either option would help the US healthcare system as a whole.

[hang a left]

4. I have a little experience with this.

We don't have health insurance, we own our own company. My son had to have ear tubes, and then his adenoids and tonsils removed. Two seperate surgeries. We were offered a discount to pay it all up front, which we did. I thought it was a good deal. Also I go to a medical center that handles only people with insurance. It is probably an HMO. They also give me cash discounts. I have paid as little as $35 to see the doctor. $80 for the shrink (that is right, on meds). I think that is a good deal.

However people that don't have the means and don't have insurance either get reemed or not served. It is all screwed up.

[mbperrin]

5. As usual, the poor pay more for everything.

Poor credit? Pay a huge deposit AND your bill!

Live in a poor neighborhood? Your bread and milk will cost more!

Really really rich? See how many nights in Vegas you can comp! See how many gifts you get each year from underlings!

It is price discrimination and it is a corporate tactic. These HMOs are a fraud from the beginning. Every dollar they make removes a dollar from medical treatment. And by limiting the supply of medical services, the price actually rises! Check it. It's basic economics. If you can make something scarce and enforce it, prices will rise. These people are dishonest leeches who create the problem they're charging to solve.

Kinda like that old Mafia fire insurance, right? Except at least the Mafia will burn your place while you're away. These buggers will take you right where you stand.

HMOs should be illegal for all the reasons above and their proponents jailed.

[silverpatronus]

7. the poor always pay more...

and not just on insurance either! think of every hire purchase or lease plan you've ever heard of. by the time you make every last payment and the interest, you've paid more for the product than somebody who has the cash to pay for it up front. grossly unfair.

[DeadHead67]

8. About,in fact almost exactly, a year and a half ago -

I awoke the day after Christmas literally unable to breathe. My doctor,who attends the same Episcopal church I do(not all episcopalians are like Karl Rove), and who treats me without charge due to my lack of health insurance, was out of town. My doc's a saint, and pracices what he preaches. I'll try to make this story a short one. I went to the emergency room, had what was apparently a faulty 'taken on the gurney with a portable machine'x-ray, was diagnosed with congestive heart failure, and then spent the next three days in the hospital while they tried to back up the initial diagnosis with some VERY expensive testing. I already had Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disorder, but it took them three days and over $9,000 worth of tests to discharge me with antibiotics and some new inhalers. NOTHING to treat congestive heart failure. The hospital ate part of the original bill, but even discounted I would bet hard cash that the bill was more than I would have been billed if I had insurance. I'll be paying this off for years.