Thread: Uninsured leave $49 BILLION in unpaid health bills

Uninsured leave $49B in unpaid health bills

By Kelly Kennedy, USA TODAY
Posted 18m ago |

WASHINGTON — 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.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington ... ills_n.htm

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.

With illegal aliens getting it all for free, why should Americans have to pay for it?

Look into how illegal aliens exploit all our taxpayer funded systems using multiple stolen ID and OBL advocates enabling them. Look into virtually every single woman of US born children who claim to be single moms not living with the babies daddies, so they an collect more in welfare "for the children". Who is verifying their info when they don't have SS#?

Study: 44 million could lose Medicaid coverage under GOP plan

By Noam N. Levey, Washington Bureau
May 10, 2011, 10:07 a.m.

Reporting from Washington— House Republican plans to repeal the new healthcare law and to convert the Medicaid insurance program into a block grant to states could force as many 44 million poor and disabled Americans out of the program over the next decade, according to a new analysis by the nonprofit Kaiser Family Foundation.

Hardest hit would be states, many in the South and West, that have not built up their healthcare safety nets in recent years.

These states would have received a large influx of federal money in the healthcare law President Obama signed last year. In 2014, the law will make all Americans making less than 133% of the federal poverty level eligible for Medicaid.

The House GOP plan, authored by Budget Committee chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), would eliminate that expansion and also slash $750 billion in federal spending on Medicaid over the next decade. The plan was approved by the House last month, though it is not expected to pass the Democratic-controlled Senate.

The Medicaid program, which insures more 50 million poor and disabled people, is jointly funded by the federal government and by the states, each of which operates a slightly different program.

Because of these differences, the cuts to each state would vary widely, according to the analysis of Ryan's plan.

Florida, for example, could see a 44% cut in federal funding for its Medicaid program by 2021, the report concludes.

Other states projected to see major cutbacks in federal aid include Wyoming, Alaska, Colorado, Georgia, Oregon and Nevada.

Nationally, the Kaiser report estimates that federal assistance for Medicaid will drop 34%. Illinois, with a projected 32% cut, and California, with a 31% cut, are expected to suffer relatively less than some other states.

Least affected would be Washington, Vermont, Minnesota, the District of Columbia and Iowa.

Many states are already struggling to hold together their Medicaid programs while trying to balance budgets and deal with millions of new enrollees who signed up for the insurance program during the last recession.

Ryan has touted his budget plan as a way to preserve Medicaid by offering states more flexibility to wring savings from their programs. "States will no longer be shackled by federally determined program requirements and enrollment criteria," he said of the block grants.

But many experts -- including the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office -- have concluded that House budget proposal would more likely simply result in major cutbacks.

"The repeal of the ACA combined with the adoption of the Medicaid block grant would add millions more to the number of uninsured Americans and compromise Medicaid's role as the health safety net in the next recession," said Diane Rowland, executive director of the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured.

The commission produced the report in conjunction with the Washington, D.C.,-based Urban Institute.

noam.levey@latimes.com

http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la ... olitics%29