USA
Today...
Unpaid hospital tab
$49B each year
By Kelly Kennedy
Uninsured Americans — including those with incomes well above the
poverty line — leave hospitals with unpaid tabs of up to $49 billion a
year, according to a government study released today.
On average, uninsured families pay only about 12% of their hospital
bills in full. Families with incomes above 400% of the poverty level,
or about $88,000 a year for a family of four, pay about 37% of their
hospital bills in full, according to the Department of Health and Human
Services study.
“This report shows that even higher-income, uninsured families are
struggling to meet the high costs of health care,” Sherry Glied of
Health and Human Services said in a statement.
Researchers also found that most uninsured people have “virtually no”
savings and that about a third have no financial assets.
Health and Human Services released the report as the White House
defends the federal health care law passed last year, which was
intended to address growing health care costs as well as ensure all
Americans can afford health insurance. Republicans have pledged to
repeal the federal health care law, saying that government should not
take away individual choices and that the law will cost too much. Glied
said the study shows the importance of health insurance for all
Americans.
Paul Winfree, a senior policy analyst at the conservative Heritage
Foundation, disagreed, saying the study showed how Americans can
exploit the system. “With ($88,000), families should be able to buy
insurance,” he said. “They choose not to.”
He said that while he realizes hospitalizations tend to be expensive,
Americans need to look at their spending and saving habits.
Jack Hadley, senior health services researcher at George Mason
University in Fairfax, Va., pointed out that uninsured people are
charged as much as two-thirds more than what insured people are charged
because insurers are able to negotiate prices.
His research has found that insured individuals don’t end up paying
higher premiums to make up for the uninsured because hospitals that
serve lower-income families don’t have a lot of patients with
insurance. However, he said the government pays about 75% of those
unpaid bills either by direct payment or through a disproportionate
payment of Medicaid.
“It affects taxes, not premiums,” he said. “The privately insured are
still paying for it.”
Jim Tallon, president of the non-profit United Hospital Fund, said the
federal health care law’s mandate that most Americans be insured is a
step in the right direction. Hospital officials are “nervous” about
proposed medical cuts in the House budget, he said.
“Most of the major hospital associations were supportive of the
Affordable Care Act for this reason,” he said. “They were willing to
take some cost reductions in Medicare payments, and in return, the
government would insure 32 million people.”
Read it at USA Today
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