Insured Cough Up Cost of Care; Covered Americans Pick Up Health Bills for Poor, Study Finds
Posted on: Thursday, 4 August 2005, 09:00 CDT
Insured Americans pay hundreds of dollars a year each for health care delivered to the uninsured, a study of how costs are shifted across the health system found.
About 8.4 percent of commercial health insurance premiums go to offset expenses from caring for the uninsured. In Colorado, that's $355 of annual individual premiums and $934 of an annual family premium. The uninsured cost Colorado's health care system $714 million a year, the study found.
The first-of-its-kind research by Families USA, published earlier this summer, comes while businesses struggle with double-digit rate increases and states debate tighter or capped enrollment in Medicaid, the safety net for the poor and disabled.
Tennessee, for instance, is trying to cut 290,000 people off Medicaid, and Missouri cut 60,000 poor, working and disabled people from the program in May.
"The one important point of this study is if you cut people off existing programs, you're going to see even larger impacts on those of us lucky enough to have insurance," said Kathleen Stoll, the report's author.
Political will to cover the uninsured waxes and wanes with election seasons. And the numbers of uninsured rise when the economy sputters, precisely when state and federal lawmakers face budget constraints.
"Really, ultimately, we have to get a solution on a federal level," Stoll said.
Stoll is health policy director for Washington, D.C.-based Families USA, a nonprofit group that says it is dedicated to high- quality, affordable health care for all Americans.
The Census Bureau estimates that 720,000 Coloradans - and 45 million Americans - are uninsured. Other say that figure could be inflated by as much as 20 percent, if the current population survey undercounts the number of people who jump on and off Medicaid by 9 million.
But either way, the numbers create an unacceptable situation, health professionals say.
The uninsured delay care. Then they show up in emergency rooms where hospitals must treat and stabilize them. The cost is passed on in higher charges.
"You have to have enough operating margin to be able to keep your operation running for the people who can afford care, much less those who can't," said Marty Arizumi, spokeswoman for the Colorado Hospital Association.
The uninsured pay for 35 percent of their hospital tab, the study found, but after that, hospitals and doctors provide $43.1 billion in care that the uninsured can't afford to pay.
Philanthropy covers 1 percent to 2 percent. State and federal programs cover another third, and premium markups make up the rest.
"It's putting pressure on everybody," Arizumi said.
Source: Rocky Mountain News
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