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Anonymous
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GW- again threatened to veto the revised health insurance plan for lower income children today that was passed yesterday
- and the Dems are using it to make hay with daily in the media- and will garner a lot of votes over the "children hating, insensitive Republicans", as none of the Repubs have stepped forward with any type of plan to cover many of these folks that this Gazette article talks about-- which ends up costing you- and me- and everybody that purchases insurance or pays out of their pocket for medical care more....
But like Newt has said-- some Repub- any Repub needs to step forward and offer some answers to the problem- and offer a plan- as its already us taxpayers, hospital users, and insurance buyers paying the cost anyway.....
But like Newt has said-- some Repub- any Repub needs to step forward and offer some answers to the problem- and offer a plan- as its already us taxpayers, hospital users, and insurance buyers paying the cost anyway.....
Insured pay for lack of insurance
The cost of covering even a small fraction of the children among America's 47 million uninsured people has a congressional majority at odds with President Bush. Closer to home, Insure Montana, a new program that subsidizes insurance coverage for 5,500 small-business employees and dependents, is struggling with a potential 32 percent premium increase. While the cost of insurance is on Americans' minds, the cost of not being insured should be too.
For example, in the past two years, the amount of charity care provided by Montana hospitals has increased 81 percent, according to the annual survey by American Hospital Association and MHA, An Association of Montana Healthcare Providers. The surveys show that Montana hospitals altogether provided $34.3 million more in charity care in 2006 than in 2004.
Still charity doesn't account for the biggest share of the hospitals' uncompensated care. In 2006 (the most recent year for which data are available), Montana hospitals delivered $77 million in charity care and wrote off $101 million in bad debt. Altogether, that's $178 million in uncompensated care provided by nonprofit, community hospitals in one year. As a group, the hospitals barely covered patient costs with patient revenue, reporting margins averaging less than 1 percent.
The difference between charity care and bad debt often is a matter of patient preference. Many needy Montana folks refuse "charity," yet they cannot afford medical bills for which they have no insurance. Sometimes, those who can't pay have insurance, yet they don't have several thousand dollars to pay the deductible on a bare-bones policy.
Who actually pays for that uncompensated care? In communities with county-owned or district-owned hospitals/clinics, taxpayers provide a direct subsidy. Medicare (think taxpayers again) provides some compensation to hospitals that serve a disproportionately high share of indigent patients. And a chunk of the uncompensated costs are passed along to privately insured people in the form of higher charges that result in higher insurance premiums.
"The percentage of Montana employers offering insurance is unchanged (over the past year) but they are shifting more cost to families," said Steve Seninger, a University of Montana economist who is director of Montana Kids Count and the Bureau of Business and Economic Research. The percentage of Montana children without coverage increased from 14 percent to 16 percent between 2004 and 2007. Seninger's research has estimated that 37,000 Montana children are without insurance.
His preliminary analysis indicates that if all those uninsured Montana children were covered, private health insurance costs would be reduced by $760 a year for a family policy and $310 a year for an individual policy.
"One thing they really overlook is the savings you'll have," Seninger said. In the short term, savings are in insurance premiums. In the long term, savings are in healthier kids who won't have big, expensive problems later in life.
The shifting of costs is a major driver in skyrocketing prices for health care. Public policy should be created to reverse that cost shift for the benefit of those in need and those who pay.