Hospitals step up – but only in America could the cost of care bankrupt the wounded.
One of the reasons Americans seem so willing to tolerate the fact that 50 million of us are uninsured and almost 30 million more of us are underinsured is that most of us who have coverage assume we are OK. That nothing truly catastrophic will happen to us, and that, even if it did, our insurance policies will pay our bills and keep us whole.
Who would think that a decision to go see a movie on a Friday night could change our lives—and the lives of our families—forever? That we or a loved one, even with what we believed was decent coverage, might become a victim of violence that could leave us not only disabled for life but also potentially bankrupt and homeless?
That random act of violence in Aurora, Colorado earlier this month could have happened anywhere in America, of course—or in any other country, for that matter—but among the world’s developed nations, we live in the only one where the families of some of the injured would have to face begging for money to pay the doctors and hospitals and keep the sheriff and his foreclosure papers at bay. Talk about American exceptionalism. This is one area where, sadly, we truly are unique.
News reports informed us last week that three of the five hospitals where the victims were taken have said they will absorb most, if not all, of the cost of their care if they don’t have insurance. But who will pay for the care they’ll need after they’re discharged? And who will pay the medical bills of those who were unlucky enough to be taken to a hospital that decides not to be so generous? And what about those who have policies with such limited benefits or high deductibles they might actually wind up in worse shape than those who are uninsured? Having any type of insurance, even if it’s essentially worthless, can disqualify a patient from charity care.
Twelve people were killed and 58 wounded in that shooting at the Century Aurora 16 theater complex on July 20. While some have been released, others are still fighting for their lives in hospitals. And many of them will likely be fighting to stay afloat financially after they’re discharged. According to the Colorado Trust, a philanthropic advocacy organization, one in three Coloradans are either uninsured or underinsured. The longer those victims stay in the hospital, the greater the chances that they will be facing a mountain of debt when they’re discharged—even those with insurance.
A 2007 study published in the American Journal of Medicine found that 62.1 percent of all bankruptcies in the United States were the result of medical debt, up from just eight percent as recently as 1981. One of the most surprising findings: less than a fourth of the debtors who filed for bankruptcy were uninsured.
“Most medical debtors were well educated, owned homes, and had middle-class occupations,” the researchers wrote. “Three quarters had health insurance.”
The problem is that more and more of us are finding ourselves in the ranks of the underinsured. The Commonwealth Fund reported last year that the number of underinsured adults is skyrocketing, rising by 80 percent between 2003 and 2010, to more than 29 million.
The Commonwealth Fund researchers said that number should begin to go down once the Affordable Care Act is fully implemented in 2014. That’s because the law sets limits on how much individuals and families will have to spend out of their own pockets for care and because it will outlaw the so-called mini-med plans that consumer advocates call junk insurance. Starting in 2012, all policies will have to include a minimum level of benefits that vastly outstrips those mini-meds.
At least that’s what Congress intended. As you can imagine, the nation’s insurers want to keep selling junk insurance because it’s considerably more profitable than comprehensive coverage. One of the key goals of America’s Health Insurance Plans, the big PR and lobbying group for the industry, is to make sure that the minimum level of benefits, which will be determined by the Department of Health and Human Services and the states, is so minimal that many more millions of us will become underinsured and at risk for bankruptcy.
Insurers are not putting it that way, of course. Instead, their lobbyists are telling lawmakers on Capitol Hill they should get rid of the parts of the law that would ban inadequate coverage because, unless they don’t, insurance will become “less affordable” for many people, especially young people who are the target market for mini-meds.
I’d be willing to bet that some of the young people who went to see a midnight movie in Aurora, Colorado, a couple of Friday nights ago were paying good money for inadequate coverage. For policies that insurers dearly want to keep selling but that will be of little if any help to those shooting victims as the bills start rolling in and the creditors start calling.
Wendell is a Senior Analyst at the Center for Public Integrity where this first appeared on 7/30/2012.
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
I am absolutely sick after reading this blog post. It has always disgusted me that the punishment for getting sick in this country is to be destroyed financially. But reading that this could be the outcome for many of those wounded in this horrific crime is unthinkable, unconscionable actually. Especially when, as other countries have demonstrated, this does not need to be the case. To think that someone could go out to a movie and end up disabled for life, losing their job, losing their insurance and likely losing their home. I bet there are many people who still do not realize that this is the reality in the U.S. in the 21st century.
I thank you, Wendell, for having the courage to step away from what you were doing and to speak the truth. More people need to hear this to know what is really happening in our country because this outcome could happen to any of us. In this case, ignorance is not bliss.
I agree with UHC Supporter above. All this on the heels of Britain celebrating their health care system and showing the world at their opening ceremony for the Olympics how proud they are. Ours is an abomination and your article, Mr. Potter, is one of the few who discusses the aspect of the victims financial straits as a result of this shooting tragedy.
I agree with both readers above.
Thank you Mr. Potter for continuing to write about the consequences of our failed system. Since the newspapers are unable to support a reporting staff anymore, and Congress is bought and paid for, there are so few places to learn the facts.
Mr. Potter is exactly right. Educate your fellow Americans in conversation and posting references to Mr. Potter in every newspaper that you can. Knowledge is power ! ! !
Yup, me too! I’m concerned that as we all agree with Mr. Potter’s words, those who are ill-informed are not hearing his message. We who know the truth are hear cheering him on. How do we get the word to those who haven’t paid enough attention to reality? It’s tremendously disheartening to realize that our fellow citizens are not fully grasping how this one issue effects us all and we should focus on helping each other rather than believing partisan politics from either side.
Career change to become an activist??
This article should be on the front page of every newspaper in the country. Connecting the state of our health care system to the unspeakable tragedy in Colorado would highlight the reality of being uninsured or underinsured in a way that nothing else could.
We need universal health care for all. It is not a question of being ‘lazy’ or just wanting a ‘hand-out’. It is a question of being able to survive when adversity strikes.
How can we make more people aware of the advantages of the Affordable Care Act. They really are uninformed and believe what the lies the Republicans are saying about it.
How can we make more people aware of the advantages of the Affordable Care Act. They really are uninformed and believe the lies the Republicans are saying about it.