Cost of uninsured adds $1,100/year to premiums of insured families.
By on Mar 24th, 2009 at 1:30 pm
Cost of uninsured adds $1,100/year to premiums of insured families.
When the uninsured cannot pay for the care they receive, health care providers shift costs to Americans with insurance in the form of higher premiums. A new report from The Wonk Room’s Ben Furnas and Peter Harbage concludes that a failure to continuously cover all Americans accounts “for roughly 8 percent of the average health insurance premium“:
This cost-shift amounts to $1,100 per average family premium in 2009 and $410 per average individual premium. By 2013, assuming the cost shift remains the same percentage of premium costs, the cost shift will be approximately $480 for an individual policy and $1,300 for a family policy.
Read the full report here.
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What a lie, healthcare providers are limited in what they can bill the insurance companies….which seldom pay off anyway. All Insurance companies should be closed and their ceo’s shot! Then All your money can go towards your health!
March 24th, 2009 at 1:34 pmGee, you mean that, ultimately, universal health care might be cheaper??
Say it isn’t so!
March 24th, 2009 at 1:44 pmSo we either add to the problem or pay for those who do?
Maybe medicine men were better…
March 24th, 2009 at 1:45 pmWhy are we the only industrialized nation in the world without national health insurance?? With all the lay-offs so many people are uninsured. If they find another job, many will be denied insurance because of pre-existing conditions.
March 24th, 2009 at 1:48 pmThere is something seriously wrong with this picture.
By 2013, assuming the cost shift remains the same percentage of premium costs, the cost shift will be approximately $480 for an individual policy and $1,300 for a family policy.
Not if we have a single-payer universal healthcare system.
PEACE
March 24th, 2009 at 1:51 pmHow do I want universal health care?
March 24th, 2009 at 1:52 pmLet me count the ways.
larkohio@6, My thoughts exactly. Why are we told by these ‘Leaders’ universal healthcare is a BAD thing? When these jerks get their healthcare for free. I mean they get the best that WE pay for. Makes my blood boil.
March 24th, 2009 at 1:52 pmWhy no mention of the cost of caring for illegals?
What part of “uninsured” are you too stupid to comprehend?
March 24th, 2009 at 1:56 pmP.D. Says:
larkohio@6, My thoughts exactly. Why are we told by these ‘Leaders’ universal healthcare is a BAD thing? When these jerks get their healthcare for free. I mean they get the best that WE pay for. Makes my blood boil.
Oh, P.D. for the Masters of the Universe, free healthcare is a right. For the rest of us, it’s a privilege that we apparently haven’t yet earned.
But we’ve got money for AIG and Goldman-Sachs, haven’t we?
PEACE
March 24th, 2009 at 1:58 pmAmericans will get universal healthcare just when the rest of the world comes up with something better.
March 24th, 2009 at 1:58 pmHospital uncompensated care for 2007 was $32 billion, a pitance relative to $13 trillion in interventions to save America’s imploding financial system.
Over the last 4 years Exxon/Mobil could’ve paid all hospital uncompensated care for the prior year, and had $10 billion leftover.
What’s been lacking? Political will to address the problem.
March 24th, 2009 at 2:00 pmanti-tax cheat Says:
Why no mention of the cost of caring for illegals? Too many zero’s? Denying illegals free health care would solve everything. Shhhhh, don’t tell anyone, though.
Any evidence (actual numbers, please) to back this up? Or is this just another “conservative” talking point that is supposed to be taken on faith?
March 24th, 2009 at 2:05 pmBeing a Canadian, I get very upset hearing Obama state that the current system can’t be overhauled.
So Obama is telling his citizens that we can put a man on the moon but we can’t find a way to convert the system to sigle payer.
MAYBE OBAMA SHOULD READ HR676!!! I am Canadian and I read what would be done if that bill was enacted.
The American people are sick and tired of the lies while the corporate masters continue to play on the American people with there lives.
Here is the real question….Obama is loss of revenue collected by Insurance companies to great to lose ? Is that why you wont concider Single Payer?
Next….Why do we (US) continue to adapt or create new plans that have never been proven to work when other industrialized nations have tried other methods and concluded that Single Payer is the best system to cover all who require health care???
I admire Obama, but this time…I am willing to have a debate over health care but you are not!! Is that becuase you know you would lose????
The numbers do the talking ….that’s where you lose Obama.
March 24th, 2009 at 2:05 pmDon’t buy this shite that illegals will get free health care. Like in Canada, you show up ….where is your health card? (picture id on the card) NO CARD ….YOU PAY ….IT’S THAT SIMPLE.
Don’t sell an eskimo ice cream….and don’t sell me health care ….it’s a right!!!!!
March 24th, 2009 at 2:08 pmThis post left out insurance companies. Health care providers negotiate contracts with insurance companies. Insurance companies have to agree to pass on some portion of the cost of the uninsured to their covered lives.
It doesn’t do for the local hospital to go bankrupt or close due to the burden of uncompensated care. Most are nonprofit community or government hospitals.
Yet, many providers change practices to reduce exposure to uninsured patients. Try to get an elective procedure or nonemergency test without insurance. Patients have to pay a deposit and agree to a payment plan or no care is provided. The same goes for doctor visits and pharmaceuticals for chronic conditions.
This cost shifting has gone on for decades. The huge numbers of uninsureds means the cost is now significant.
March 24th, 2009 at 2:10 pmYOU GOT TO EDUCATE YOURSELF, BROTHA:
http://www.pnhp.org/facts/singlepayer_faq.php#rationing
March 24th, 2009 at 2:13 pmSo how much cost would shift into everyone’s FICA payments if Nationalized Health Care were instituted? You’d have the formerly uninsured being treated as well as those who now do routine maintenance. Take that $1100/yr and add to it.
March 24th, 2009 at 2:14 pmOh Obama, if your worried about the revenues lost if the US went to a single payer system….do like the rest of the world does….impose sin taxes !!!
Cigerettes , Alcohol , junk food containing a certain per centage of fat , Gas (yes gas) and anything else that harms ones health. You see, the ones who abuse are paying for it themselves. Want to drink…go ahead contribute to single payer,,,,want to smoke …go ahead contribute to single payer.
I want OBAMA to give a reason WHY HE WONT CONCIDER SINGLE PAYER????? TELL US !!
March 24th, 2009 at 2:15 pmstateofthedivision Says:
It doesn’t do for the local hospital to go bankrupt or close due to the burden of uncompensated care. Most are nonprofit community or government hospitals.
Um, not true. Source, please?
PEACE
March 24th, 2009 at 2:16 pmanti-tax cheat Says:
You post, you lie, you “no link”.
Besides, most “illegals” pay with cash, moron.
Hospitals try not to make a habit of not collecting on debts from oustanding patient’s bills.
You’re drowning in fear and ignorance.
March 24th, 2009 at 2:16 pmOOOH, the people who can’t afford to pay for insurance will now be FORCED to pay FICA.
March 24th, 2009 at 2:19 pmDon’t buy this shite that illegals will get free health care.
News flash! They already do.
That is becuase you don’t have a national system and two…if you did have a national system…you would have id health cards with your picture on it. Every time I go to see my doctor, they swipe the card and all my info is there.
Stop with excuses….lets get a plan going first. I wish you knew what it is like not to have to worry about your health care.
March 24th, 2009 at 2:21 pmanti-human being
I always laugh at the right-wingers’ toss-around of “illegals” as the abstract punching bag for all of the world’s problems.
Never mind that the same policies they support that whore disproportionately for businesses bring the “illegals” here.
ON TOPIC, health care is not something you trolls understand. I recommend having to work for your health insurance and/or stop have mom stop writing the check for your premiums and maybe you’ll understand how much of an uphill battle affording health care, increasingly substandard at that, really is.
March 24th, 2009 at 2:21 pmNOLIESPLEASE Says:
Oh Obama, if your worried about the revenues lost if the US went to a single payer system….do like the rest of the world does….impose sin taxes !!!
I’d take it a step further: If someone on Medicare or Medicaid is a smoker, make him/her have a monthly copay for services. After all, if one can afford cigarettes, one can pay for the increased healthcare burden such behavior results in.
PEACE
March 24th, 2009 at 2:22 pmhttp://www.pnhp.org/facts/singlepayer_faq.php#rationing
This is funny.
So then the government won’t be making health care decisions? Good.
2 sentences later:
So the doctor and patient decide that they need this expensive treatment, but the “elected and appointed agencies” (not the government) have decided that this treatment exceeds the cost containment measures.
Brilliant!
March 24th, 2009 at 2:27 pmOh by the way….China last month announced that It will be implementing a single payer system for it’s 1.3 billion people. Google to see the news reports !
Obama….tell us again why we can’t have single payer???? China has a free market system..and there changing.
Some one please ask him HR676 Questions tonight.
One more fact….Universal Health care was never passed in the US becuase the white ruling elite did not want black to have health care. Also many refused to wait behind a black person if they were sick. Search the history ….it’s amazing how a few have help hold this nation back for so many.
March 24th, 2009 at 2:29 pmCase in point: my mother’s been to a freep markets doctor three times just for the right dosage of blood pressure medication — appointments costing $300 each. They insisted on an EKG she didn’t need, and no, her blood pressure medication is still too strong and dangerously lowered her blood pressure just recently. She now has to improvise and takes the medication once a week because taking it everyday would pack too much punch. The doctor still isn’t getting it right.
On the upside though, the government insurance cost a small fraction of the national avg. for insurance premiums, covering all but $12 of these $300 appointments. The government is getting it right while the private sector, not so much.
Now only if everybody could have this great insurance, because they should. With so many solutions out there, why is the same old guard given a platform to stand in the way?
March 24th, 2009 at 2:32 pmMcWars,
There was a news story about that. They said that the dosage on blood pressure medicine is likely overestimated and that taking half the dosage or so is better.
March 24th, 2009 at 2:36 pmspencers mom Says:
I’d take it a step further: If someone on Medicare or Medicaid is a smoker, make him/her have a monthly copay for services. After all, if one can afford cigarettes, one can pay for the increased healthcare burden such behavior results in.
PEACE
I strongly agree. And it would be a great incentive to quit.
March 24th, 2009 at 2:36 pmThanks for that, Alejandro!
March 24th, 2009 at 2:38 pmI was trying to show the logic of an insurance company agreeing to pay a bit more to a hospital to cover a portion of uncompensated care. The insurance company needs local providers to sell insurance in that area.
Untrue that nonprofit or governmental hospitals provide most of the acute care for the uninsured? In my town, the nonprofit provides 80% of emergency care for the uninsureds, the for-profit supplies 20%. If it went by bed size, the ratio would be closer to 60/40. The nonprofit does more at considerable expense.
As for the financial stress in healthcare:
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/12/27/america/Meltdown-Hospitals-List.php
http://74.125.95.132/search?q=cache:YIH11F3SD74J:online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20081119-714759.html+Impact+of+economic+woes+on+hospitals&cd=2&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us
http://74.125.95.132/search?q=cache:cYHT3uQE71YJ:www.ihatoday.org/ahareport.pdf+Impact+of+economic+woes+on+hospitals&cd=3&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us
http://www.bondbuyer.com/article.html?id=20090211YLL3AWMF&queryid=1033532419&hitnum=7
March 24th, 2009 at 2:42 pmHospitals and doctors don’t charge insurance premiums, insurance companies do. The only group that can agree to cost shift is insurance companies. They’ve decided over three decades to do so. It’s in their economic interest to have a panel of local hospitals and providers.
The problem of the cost of uninsureds is now so great, it’s an attention getting number. It means one thing, the system is deformed and needs reform.
March 24th, 2009 at 2:48 pmHospital Pricing Behavior
Nonprofit hospitals charge patients less than for-profit hospitals (including effective net prices after discounts).
Nonprofit hospitals admit more uninsured patients and provide more uncompensated care than for-profit hospitals.
http://www.cmwf.org/Content/Publications/Testimonies/2004/Jun/Hospital-Pricing-Behavior-and-Patient-Financial-Risk.aspx
March 24th, 2009 at 2:53 pmIt seems as if whenever there’s a financial crisis in this country the first thing some folks want to do is blame the poor, illegal immigrants or minorities! This problem starts at the top – shyte just rolls down hill! I dislike bringing race into this – BUT – rich, white males have decided on policies and created laws in this country for decades and that’s where the buck should stop and that’s where blame needs to be placed!
March 24th, 2009 at 2:54 pmHealthcare for profit is immoral.
But then, we are an immoral country…
…we even torture and don’t care one bit…
…we attack other country and kill hundreds of thousands and we don’t care…
…we poison the planet and don’t care…
…we spend billions upon billions on weapons and bombs and we don’t care…
…we are in decline and the rest of the world we be happy to see us in ruin…
…and we deserve it, because we are an immoral country.
March 24th, 2009 at 3:03 pmWhen I lived in California, auto insurance was quite high (not too surprising with that many automobiles in one place — lots of accidents). I haven’t lived in California for awhile, but I’ve no reason to believe the situation has improved.
The high cost of insurance caused many people to drive without it, even though the law mandated one have coverage to drive. Why? Because most places in California were structured with the automobile in mind. It was very difficult to have any kind of job, for example, without a car. Public transportation was very poor in most places (city of San Francisco an exception), and places too far apart to bicycle or walk.
So you have all these people driving around without insurance. When they cause an accident, they can’t pay, which causes the victim’s “uninsured motorist” coverage to kick in. Increase of uninsured motorist claims cause claim payouts overall to skyrocket, causing insurance companies to increase premiums for their paying customers.
And each time this happens, another layer of motorists get priced out of the market. When they can no longer afford high premiums for auto insurance, they become uninsured — adding to the problem.
It’s not hard to see how this spirals out of control. The same exact thing is happening to health insurance. And we still have people claiming that because they’re insured, it’s not their problem. Quite simply, they’re deluding themselves.
March 24th, 2009 at 3:04 pmI just read on another blog that if you opt out of Medicare coverage you also lose your Social Security benefits.
I guess you can opt out of receiving benefits but you can’t opt out of paying.
March 24th, 2009 at 3:04 pmThe study takes 2005 level cost shifting and applies it to projected 2009 health insurance premiums.
The question is how did insurance companies negotiating provider contracts since 2005? If they maintained the same level of cost shift, the study is accurate. If insurors went harder of softer on providers, the margin of error grows.
March 24th, 2009 at 3:07 pmMore on nonprofit and governmental hospitals and the burden of the uninsured:
Burden of uninsured now closing non-profit hospitals
http://healthcare.zdnet.com/?p=845
March 24th, 2009 at 3:07 pmanti-tax cheat Says:
These numbers are 4 yrs old. They’re probably quadrupled, by now.
Three minutes later: Any evidence (actual numbers, please) to back this up?
Any person who asks this question in regards to illegals is swimming upstream in the river of denial.
In other words, no, you don’t have any evidence. You have numbers you spout without any reference to source and when asked for evidence you respond that only a dummy would ask for any.
March 24th, 2009 at 3:17 pmThe Fraying Link Between Work and Health Insurance: Trends in Employer-Sponsored Insurance for Employees, 2000-2007
http://www.kff.org/uninsured/7840.cfm
Employers once covered nearly 75% of Americans. It down to less than 58%. They clearly want to do less, especially when the Business Roundtable says the cost of health insurance is an unfair burden for companies competing in a global economy.
Providers deserve beating up, just not for actions of insurance companies and employers.
March 24th, 2009 at 3:18 pmFrom the original 2005 study:
As the costs of care for the uninsured are added to health insurance premiums that are already rising steeply, more employers can be expected to drop coverage, leaving even more people without insurance. And as more people lose coverage and the cost of their care is added to premiums for the insured, still more employers will drop coverage. It’s a vicious circle that will not end until we as a nation take steps to solve the underlying problems.
March 24th, 2009 at 3:30 pmNo surprise here.
Additional note: As tragic as the death of Natasha Richardson was, she apparently did not lose consciousness when she bumped her head. If she had been seen for an MRI almost immediately, and then surgery initiated almost immediately thereafter, there is, at least theoretically, an outside chance that she might have survived.
The average cost of a head and neck MRI, with contrast, in the state of Vermont: $1925 Source: http://www.bishca.state.vt.us/HcaDiv/HRAP_Act53/HRC_BISHCAcomparison_2008/pricing_finance_tables/table3f.pdf
If such a procedure were to become standard every time someone bumped their head, what do you suppose would happen with medical insurance rates?
Although this, in some cases, could potentially save lives, there is always the cost/benefit matter that enters the equation.
Similarly, if the speed limit on highways were reduced by 10, 15, 20, etc. miles per hour, lives could be saved as well, but would it ever fly? The answer lies much closer to none than slim.
March 24th, 2009 at 3:31 pmanti-tax cheat Says:
Why no mention of the cost of caring for illegals? Too many zero’s? Denying illegals free health care would solve everything. Shhhhh, don’t tell anyone, though.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Another soulless Ebeneezer Scrooge lover. The answer is to let them DIE. Our humanity is a small price to pay for the selfish goon squad to get THEIR way. So tell us taxcheat, do you even remember what it was like before your soul dried up and blew away?
March 24th, 2009 at 3:31 pmanti-tax cheat Says:
skinheads.net???? You really are an ignorant piece of work.
March 24th, 2009 at 3:35 pmanti-tax cheat Says
March 24th, 2009 at 1:46 pm
Why no mention of the cost of caring for illegals? Too many zero’s? Denying illegals free health care would solve everything. Shhhhh, don’t tell anyone, though.
__________________________________________________________
No, it wouldn’t “solve everything” — not even if we located and deported EVERY SINGLE undocumented resident.
http://www.factcheck.org/askfactcheck/how_many_of_the_uninsured_are_us.html
Out of the 47 million or so uninsured people in this country, 79 percent of them are American citizens. The remaining 21 percent are BOTH documented and undocumented immigrants.
Even if you got rid of ALL immigrants, legal or otherwise, you would still have over 37 million uninsured citizens. Still a problem, and those 37 million uninsured people would still be making costs greater for everybody else, ultimately causing the number of uninsured people to increase. We’d still be caught in the same vicious circle we have now.
Blaming the “illegals” might make a nice scapegoat for you, but that’s not the main cause of the problem. Try again.
March 24th, 2009 at 3:56 pm1.)The cost of a doctor office directly off the street $45.00
2.)The cost as calculated as an insurance deductable $96.00
3.)The weekly cost of this health care plan 150.00/wk, family
of 5, with $2000.00 deductable, employer contributing
$125.00/wk. This is a group plan.
4.)This includes a list of uncovered proceedures.
5.)We have been informed that with the widening of the cobra
benifits, expect the costs to go up.
The $1100.00/yr seems to be very low. I would assume that half my expenses go to cover the uninsured. ($7150.00)
March 24th, 2009 at 5:54 pmThese are my facts!
Has anybody here ever been in the military or VA healthcare system?
It works, regardless of the isolated incidents that make the news. Those could be from any provider.
Extend it to everybody and game over for the “profits”.
I can’t wait…
March 24th, 2009 at 6:54 pmAnti-tax cheat is to stupid to comprehend that the RepubliCons are the biggest tax cheats of all, and he is the biggest RepubliCon stooge. It seems anti-tax cheat should change his name to tax cheat supporter.
March 24th, 2009 at 7:58 pm…so does this mean that the true cost of insurance is $410 per person?
About a week ago, I read some propaganda from the automobile insurance gang that said 24% of drivers are uninsured (1 in 4? Really? Seems high to me.) and that each uninsured driver adds $100/year cost for other drivers.
That go me thinking: if 1 in 4 drivers is uninsured and it costs $100 for the three insured drivers to cover the fourth, doesn’t that mean that the cost for car insurance should be around $300 per year?
The view must be nice to be from the top of the pyramid.
March 24th, 2009 at 11:43 pm