A massive national failure

Over the decades, the U.S. has built a Rube Goldberg contraption out of employer provided health insurance, Medicare, Medicaid, the Affordable Care Act, and some smaller bits and piece that has resulted in, officially, about 90% of Americans having insurance.Great news! That means we can all afford the medical services we need and nobody has to go broke because they get sick or are injured in a car crash or shot by somebody exercising their Second Amendment rights! Err, no. Sadly it does not mean that. As a matter of fact, four out of ten insured adults surveyed in 2023 said they had skipped or delayed some type of care in the past year, and one in six said they had problems paying medical bills.[i] According to an investigation by KFF, more than 100 million Americans – 41% of adults – have debts for medical services. A quarter of those owe more than $5,000 and 1/5 of them never expect to pay it off.[ii]The KFF investigation uncovered many depressing stories. A couple who were sued for $10,000 by a hospital where the husband ’s leg was amputated; another who were left with $80,000 in debt after the premature birth of twins; innumerable people who have been denied services altogether because of outstanding debt. The New York Times reported recently on a large, not-for-profit hospital chain that had an explicit policy o f refusing services to people with more than $4,500 in debt. The corporation’s CEO, according to the Times story, was paid $3.5 million in 2021.[iii] Th...
Source: Stayin' Alive - Category: American Health Source Type: blogs