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What happens when the uninsured go to the emergency room?
The U.S. Census Bureau reports that an increasing number of people are now unable to afford medical insurance. Some 47 million people do not have medical insurance. When they begin to fall sick, there is nothing that can be done if money is short. When it comes to a choice between food on the table and treatment, most people decide to eat. They hope they will get better. When health does not improve, there is no improvement in the choice to be made. If treatment remains unaffordable, they have to wait until their sickness worsens to the point it can be considered an emergency. At this point, people decide to go to the emergency room at their local hospital. Federal law is very clear. Hospitals are under a positive legal obligation to treat everyone who walks in through the door. It does not matter whether the emergency is real, in the sense of a traffic accident inflicting unexpected injury, or to some extent manufactured, where the condition only becomes an emergency because of a deliberate delay. People must be given treatment. The difficulty is that most of the uninsured cannot afford to pay their bills. The hospitals can and do issue invoices for the treatment given and drugs supplied. This is also a part of the law. People have a responsibility to pay for their treatment. But hospitals are realistic about their chances of collecting. Continued pursuit for payment usually results in bankruptcy and the creditors only get a few cents in the dollar. So, hospitals make a rational decision. They spread all the unpaid bills among all those who can pay. In other words, whether you are paying out of your own pocket or you are relying on your own health insurance to pay for your treatment, a percentage of every hospital's bill is a provision against bad debts from the uninsured. The irony is that everyone who is insured is also insuring all the uninsured for their emergency room visits. If you have been wondering why your own health insurance premiums have been going up so sharply of late, it's because there is a wave of uninsured people going to the emergency rooms around the country. The health insurers are having to pay more and this additional cost gets passed on in the premiums. Is it going to get any better? No. It's actually going to get worse. Ever more people are finding health insurance unaffordable. Even with sites like this which allow people to find the cheapest insurance around, many still find the premiums too much. That does not mean you should give up. Using this site will get you offers. Then it's up to you to negotiate directly with the insurer or its agents to get the best actual premium for the cover. It's not worth the risk of being uninsured. If at all possible, get some cover.
How many are uninsured?
In 2007, before we were hit by the credit crunch, the wave of foreclosures and the loss of jobs, the U.S. Census Bureau reported that 47m people have no health insurance. That's a rise of almost 5% as against the estimated number of uninsured made in 2005. So what does this actually mean? The results confirm that these people have no health insurance plan through their work (including the military) or union membership, and no access to federal or state programs including Medicare and Medicaid at any time during a twelve month period. This reflects a growing reality that the average employer no longer offers health insurance benefits. As a result, the statistics show 10.8% of whites, 15.5% of Asians, 20.5% of African -Americans, 34.1% of Hispanics were uninsured. It also confirms the sad reality that nearly 12% of children had no insurance in 2006. Now, ignoring the politics and focussing on the practical realities, there are two reactions. You can give up on the search for affordable health insurance and wait until the problem becomes sufficiently severe to justify treatment at your local emergency room. It is pointless making any judgemental comments about exposing yourself and others to the risk of more serious injury by delaying treatment. If the premiums demanded by the health insurance industry are always going to be outside your budget, this is not your fault. If anyone or anything is to blame, it is the political system that permits a for-profit system to operate in the health market. Once you introduce the profit motive into any service, costs rise to maintain or maximise profits. Numbers in the accounts maintained by the hospitals and insurance companies do not translate into the faces of the children who are denied treatment. Most CEOs sleep well at night. Alternatively, you can use this site and others like it to get comparative quotes. Then use every legitimate way of reducing the quoted premiums. Start with a family plan because the cost per individual member is usually less than the cost of one policy per family member. You should also look at term insurance. The rates are usually less than for equivalent cover under a permanent policy. This means spending time actually talking with the health insurance companies and their agents. Only when you talk to people and ask the right questions about discounts and the different types of plan and policy, do you begin to find something affordable. The more passive you are, the more impossible it becomes to get access to lower rates. As one of the middle class, you may come more easily to this process. But no matter what your background, you need to overcome your fears and start negotiating the best deal for your family. If this is too daunting, do not let pride get in the way. Ask at your local church or a charity for someone to help.
