Majority of Hospital Debt Owed by Folks With Insurance

[somarco]

In 2018, just 11.1% of hospitals’ bad debt came from insured “self-pay” accounts, or from patients whose insurance required out-of-pocket payments, according to Kodiak. By 2022, the proportion who did (or could) not pay their bills soared to 57.6% of all hospitals’ bad debt.

“The idea of patient responsibility” – those deductibles and coinsurance requirements – “was not an idea created by healthcare providers. They were vehicles created by payers,” referring to insurers.

Majority of debtors to US hospitals now people with health insurance

Analysts say a ‘sea change’ occurred in the American healthcare system from when only a tenth of debt came from the insured

www.theguardian.com

Summary above the link intended for those with short attention span and limited reading comprehension skills. Anyone else who prefers more detail should click the link.

 

[LeeV]

Wait a minute, this can't be correct! Obamacare promised to solve all our problems.

 

[somarco]

Wait a minute, this can't be correct! Obamacare promised to solve all our problems.

Promises disappear once you are elected and you can blame the problems on the prior administration.

 

[Millwood]

The only ones who benefited across the board with ACA were the insurance companies. They raised their premiums I'm guessing a minimum of 500%
Hospitals and providers have more unpaid bills than anytime ever( hospitals were supposed to benefit if everyone had insurance)hint they didn't.
If you don't get a subsidy you're screwed.
Couple in their 60s $36,000 in premiums. $6000 deduct ($18,000 deduct out of network) till plan pays a penny. Max oop in network is $9,450 (unlimited out of network). If I stay in network shouldn't have to shell out much more than $50k(premiums,deductible, coinsurance)a year. It's been so comforting to know that.
Begining to think insurance companies are the NEW organized crime families extorting the Federal Goverment.

 

[somarco]

If I stay in network shouldn't have to shell out much more than $50k a year.

WINNING!

 

[Jim Wright]

The only ones who benefited across the board with ACA were the insurance companies. They raised their premiums I'm guessing a minimum of 500%
Hospitals and providers have more unpaid bills than anytime ever( hospitals were supposed to benefit if everyone had insurance)hint they didn't.
If you don't get a subsidy you're screwed.
Couple in their 60s $36,000 in premiums. $6000 deduct ($18,000 deduct out of network) till plan pays a penny. Max oop in network is $9,450 (unlimited out of network). If I stay in network shouldn't have to shell out much more than $50k(premiums,deductible, coinsurance)a year. It's been so comforting to know that.
Begining to think insurance companies are the NEW organized crime families extorting the Federal Goverment.

To me, that seems a bit sensationalist.

Sure, a 60 year old couple in WV (the state with the highest individual rates) could pay $3600/yr. In NC for example, that number gets cut in half.
The majority of plans on the individual market have copays for a wide variety of services, so claiming that they don't pay a penny until you hit your deductible isn't accurate.

Are these plans great? No. Are they horrible? No.

My wife and kids are on an individual plan and last year my wife had a baby on one. The out of pocket costs were very reasonable

I agree with you that the premiums are likely higher because the government is guaranteed to pay if the individual is not.

It's not a perfect system but it's not so black and white. These plans and that system do actually help people. Just because it doesn't help everyone, doesn't mean it's broken

 

[Millwood]

To me, that seems a bit sensationalist.

Sure, a 60 year old couple in WV (the state with the highest individual rates) could pay $3600/yr. In NC for example, that number gets cut in half.
The majority of plans on the individual market have copays for a wide variety of services, so claiming that they don't pay a penny until you hit your deductible isn't accurate.

Are these plans great? No. Are they horrible? No.

My wife and kids are on an individual plan and last year my wife had a baby on one. The out of pocket costs were very reasonable

I agree with you that the premiums are likely higher because the government is guaranteed to pay if the individual is not.

It's not a perfect system but it's not so black and white. These plans and that system do actually help people. Just because it doesn't help everyone, doesn't mean it's broken

So this isn't sensationalism. And yes not one penny paid on my wife and I other than preventive until deductible met.
This is my actual cost for my ACA on me and my wife.
Don't give a crap about anyone who now gets insurance because of subsidies I fund ! Hell half the people wouldn't pay $100 month for $2000 month insurance. And they sure won't pay $7500 out of pocket for deduct and max OOP to providers. ACA did nothing except shift and raise costs.
We've spent billions partially taken from Medicare(most people forget this) and still haven't moved the needle on the uninsured and have incrediblely moved the burden to the disappearing Middle Class.

 

[somarco]

the premiums are likely higher because the government is guaranteed to pay if the individual is not.

Seems like you don't understand the under 65 market, before and after Obamacare.

Government is guaranteed to pay what ??????

My wife and kids are on an individual plan and last year my wife had a baby on one. The out of pocket costs were very reasonable

Define reasonable.

Just because it doesn't help everyone, doesn't mean it's broken

WHO said it was broken?

How much is YOUR taxpayer funded subsidy?

How much is YOUR deductible/copay buy down?

Have you ever been a health insurance agent and are you one now?

Do you realize there are folks out there that do not qualify for a taxpayer funded give away and opt for the "tin" plan with no deductibles and no copays until they hit their deductible?

I don't know @Millwood but I have read enough of his posts to know he is knowledgeable and doesn't BS his way through life. He knows his stuff which is more than I can see from you in your 13 posts.




How much is YOUR UNSUBSIDIZED premium?

Did you have individual insurance before Obamacare? How much did it cost you? What was your deductible, copay & OOP?

 

[axeman462]

In 2018, just 11.1% of hospitals’ bad debt came from insured “self-pay” accounts, or from patients whose insurance required out-of-pocket payments, according to Kodiak. By 2022, the proportion who did (or could) not pay their bills soared to 57.6% of all hospitals’ bad debt.

“The idea of patient responsibility” – those deductibles and coinsurance requirements – “was not an idea created by healthcare providers. They were vehicles created by payers,” referring to insurers.

Majority of debtors to US hospitals now people with health insurance

Analysts say a ‘sea change’ occurred in the American healthcare system from when only a tenth of debt came from the insured

www.theguardian.com

Summary above the link intended for those with short attention span and limited reading comprehension skills. Anyone else who prefers more detail should click the link.

some people just don't care.

Years ago, I met a lady turning 65. She had an ACA plan with the lowest possible premium. The plan unfortunately had an insane deductible, can't remember the exact number, but it was well into the 4 digits.

2 weeks before the Plan F that I wrote her up with was scheduled to take effect, she had a hernia. She went to the ER for it.

Some days later she called me to see if her plan F would pay her out of pocket costs. Naturally I explained that it would not.

I can't remember exactly how the conversation progressed from there, but somehow the conversation got to the point where she told me that she wasn't going to pay the hospital bill because the hospital "makes a lot of money, and they can just write it off."

 

[somarco]

Deadbeats don't care.

The poor will always be among us.

That's not my market. Might be yours, not mine.