From the hospital to bankruptcy

[question everything]

From the hospital to bankruptcy

Any health care reform must address how medical costs ruin families' financial lives.

By BARRY ROSENZWEIG

July 15, 2009
Minneapolis Star Tribune


No conversation about reform of our health care system is complete unless it includes a discussion of how medical costs are driving Americans to bankruptcy court. The first nationwide study on medical causes of bankruptcy (released June 4 by Harvard Law School, Harvard Medical School and Ohio University) found that 62.1 percent of all bankruptcies filed in 2007 were related to medical problems. This represents a 50 percent increase since 2001, according to the researchers.

Those people seeking the protection of bankruptcy due to uncovered medical expenses are typically middle class, according to the study. Two-thirds of them own their homes. Three-fifths have college degrees. They are employed and have medical coverage from private insurers when the crisis hits, but, by the time they are considering bankruptcy, most have lost their jobs due to their illness, have lost their medical coverage and are unable to get new private coverage. They are often stuck in a Catch-22: too well-off for Medicaid but unable to afford private health insurance or unacceptable to private insurers because of their preexisting conditions. They further risk their health because they must balance buying food and paying their rent or mortgage against buying medications.

Unless you are Warren Buffet, or at least very wealthy, you are just one serious illness away from bankruptcy. Most health insurance policies have loopholes, copayments and deductibles that can bankrupt a family in a short period of time. This study found that patients with diabetes typically pay an average of $26,971 in out-of-pocket expenses each year. Those with multiple sclerosis pay $34,167. The largest single expense for medically bankrupt families is a hospital stay, and prescription drugs make up the largest recurring expense, totaling on average 18.6 percent of their total medical debts. Patients often put part of these debts on their credit cards, thus accumulating large amounts of credit card debt added to the bills they owe to medical facilities.

(snip)


When it comes to reform of our health care system, there's a lot to talk about. As we continue the debate, let's not forget the hundreds of thousands of people who have been forced into bankruptcy due to the inefficiencies of our health system and the exorbitant costs of uncovered medical expenses.

Barry Rosenzweig is the senior attorney with Rosenzweig Law Office, P.A., in Edina, which has handled bankruptcy and other cases for more than 20 years.

http://www.startribune.com/opinion/commentary/50790757.html

[Uncle Joe]

1. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, question everything.

[elocs]

2. My goddaughter is 17 and has been hospitalized 7 times this year for schizophrenia.

Each time for a week to 2 weeks, different hospitals, doctors, all at about $1000/day. It has cost the insurance company tens of thousands of dollars without helping the girl at all. Yes, they will continually pay for emergency commitment, but they won't pay for treatment that will really help the girl. All of this has cost her mother and stepfather thousands of dollars too. Their insurance company informed them at the beginning of the month that they had used all of their mental health coverage for the year. From then on, they were on their on for the tune of thousands of dollars for each day in the hospital.

Mom and stepfather are both college graduates, they own their own home and make over $100,000 a year. Given their medical expenses for the year for only the first half of the year they are facing potential bankruptcy with another 6 months of the year to go. Rationing? It pretty much sounds like it to me. My goddaughter needs help now, yet her mother is being told she will have to wait until January 2010 before the insurance company will provide any coverage again. Also, mom is employed by one of the major hospitals in Chicago yet her insurance company will not pay for her daughter to ever be treated there: out of network.

[question everything]

3. Since they are on their own, they might as well search for a better

treatment. There are medications that are supposed to, at least, alleviate the symptoms and the drug company may be willing to provide the drugs at a discount.

This is really sad. I hope they manage to get some help.

[elocs]

4. No continuity of care or drug management is a big problem.

One doctor prescribes a drug, then the next doctor at a different hospital cuts the dosage in half. Add to that, since my goddaughter is 17 she has the right to say "no" to any drugs. My goddaughter cannot be trusted to be home alone and both her mom's and stepfather's jobs are potentially in jeopardy between hospitalizations and run-ins with the law. Every emergency admittance to the psych ward is $1000 a day and the hospitals want to make sure they get a piece of that pie. They keep her for up to 2 weeks, cut her loose and send her home even though she is not ready, telling her parents "she is your problem now". She lasts for maybe a week at home and then it is rinse and repeat with whatever hospital in the network that will take her.

The point here is that her mom and stepfather fit the profile of being college grads, solid middle income who own their home, yet at imminent risk of bankruptcy do to overwhelming medical bills even though they have insurance.

[ovidsen]

5. Health care drove me to bankruptcy.

I was paying for my own health insurance (California Blue Cross Blue shield when a mugger assaulted me with a baseball bat in 2003. The bill for surgery (about $12,000) was paid.

A year later, I noticed a sore on my tongue that wouldn't go away. A biopsy determined it was malignant. Surgery removed it, and also removed lymph nodes on the left side of my neck for biopsies. Negative, thank God. Cost? About $35,000.

Enter Blue Cross Blue Shield. They not only refused to pay for the mouth/lymph node procedure, but they demanded the money back from the shoulder operation I underwent.

Their reasoning? they retroactively canceled my insurance (while still accepting my premiums), claiming the shoulder shattered by the baseball bat was a "pre-existing condition".

What?

I ended declaring bankruptcy, and since then have been unable to get an adequate insurance policy at anything even close to a reasonable price. Pre-existing conditions, don't you know. Do I favor a single-payment government subsidized health care program covering all Americans?

You bet I do.

[question everything]

8. This is horrible. And BCBS are supposed to be "the good guys"

i.e. not for profit.

Did you at least submit a complaint to the CA Dept. of Insurance? To your representatives in the Assembly and the State Senate?

[ovidsen]

6. Lousy private health insurance forced me into bankruptcy.

Sorry, dupe.

[Blatant News]

7. so hard to fathom a health service like that

It really is hard to understand living in a 'developed' country that has such a health service. Ive lived in uk and irl all my life and we get whatever our health requires, no holes barred. This seems normal to all of us.

Your health is your wealth, people need to wake up, if the country can afford to have trillions of bright lights in the nevada desert, and thousands of mcdonalds all over the country, it can certainly afford decent medical care for its citizens. This should be the first investment, bar none.

[question everything]

9. Right. This is the problem. People don't think that it could happen to them,

they think that the people who got entangled in such a mess did something wrong..

Here is a story for you:

Some 18 years ago we lived in Florida and at a gathering met a couple from Scotland who lived in South Africa for many years. We were "warned" not to talk about the new South Africa so that the guest - in his 80s - was not going to start a tirade about what "happened" to his beloved South Africa. He just was ranting about the trade unions.

Somehow we talked about health insurance and he got serious and asked: is it true that in this country you can die if you are seriously ill and don't have the money to pay?

I remember meeting a woman once who told me how her mother had cancer, and then she reached her maximum cover and... then died.

So when we hear that "most people like what they have" my response is: yes, until they no longer have it.

And, welcome to DU!

[Blatant News]

10. great point!

solid, solid point..... in fairness at the moment Ireland is trying to add, little by little, charges for medical care, like upping the cost of attending the A&E from a token few quid to a possible 100euro per trip

the drs do cost about 50 euro per visit, and medications can be expensive too, but everybody gets their big costly medical problems looked after.... if you have cancer you should get treatment, and that seems to be the way in which the Irish system operates in most areas.... i must point out that people on social assistance get everything paid for, and low income get major help too, so neither would have no dr's fees or medication fees

in the uk it is an even better system.... everybody is entitled to everything for free..... drs are free to visit, and all medications have 1 price, i think it's UK£6.75, but it could be a pound or two more now

we must remain vigilant over in this neck of the woods!

& cheers for the welcome
George :)