For some, Health Insurance isn't enough

At one time or another, many people find themselves facing unexpected medical bills. Because few insurance plans now are as generous as they were five or ten years ago, most people even with insurance find themselves responsible for a greater portion of the medical expenses they incur. In this article in today's NY Times, we see how even those with insurance can find themselves mired in debt as a result of unforeseen medical expenses:

"The Dorsetts, Sharon and Arnold, were concerned about Zachery's health, but they were not worried about the financial consequences. They were a young, middle-income couple, with health insurance that covered 90 percent of doctors' bills and most of the costs of prescription drugs.

Then the bills started coming in. After a week in the hospital, the couple's share came to $1,100 - not catastrophic, but more than their small savings. They enrolled in a 90-day payment plan with the hospital and struggled to make the monthly installments of nearly $400, hoping that they did not hit any other expenses.

But Zachery, who was eventually found to have an immune system disorder, kept getting sick, and the expense of his treatment - fees for tests, hospitalizations, medicine - kept mounting, eventually costing the family $12,000 to $20,000 a year. Earlier this year, the Dorsetts stopped making mortgage payments on their ranch house, in a subdivision outside Indianapolis, because they could not afford them. In March, they filed for bankruptcy."

There is nothing unusually unique about this couple, beyond their child's illness. The husband works a job making what most of us would consider decent money; enough to buy a house, buy some nice things, go on a vacation once in awhile, and take the family out to dinner now and again. They have decent insurance through his job. Like all of us they have debt, but their was manageable. For them, overwhelming medical bills, eventual bankruptcy, and the loss of their home must have seemed incredibly unlikely. And yet their child's unforeseen chronic illness changed everything.

The health care system in America, as it stands now, is untenable, unworkable or unavailable for millions of Americans. Right now, nearly 45 million Americans live without any health insurance whatsoever. Millions more are underinsured; they have insurance coverage inadequate to their needs, or go long periods without any insurance whatsoever. Millions more rely on Medicaid to provide them with some level of health care, and yet states and Congress are cutting the amount of money they provide to Medicaid and similar programs. And as we see here, even those with relatively good insurance may face medical bills beyond their ability to pay when they or a loved one are faced with unexpected illness or injury. The poor have no insurance, or they have state subsidized health care that is inadequate, frustrating to use, or impossible to get. The middle class find themselves paying more in premiums and more in deductibles for coverage that is less extensive then it used to be. Only those who can afford good insurance on their own, those fortunate enough to have good insurance through their employer, or those who pay in cash, have little to worry about.

Health care in America is broken. Health care costs are spiraling out of control. We have more and more medical care options then ever before, and yet less and less people who can take advantage of them. It's long past time for change. What I'm hoping to do over the next few week is explore some of the options we have for change, with pros and cons, along with my opinion on those options and my thoughts on which course we should take. The rising cost of health care poses a unique threat to the economy of our nation, and the livelihood of our citizens. It's past time to start thinking about what we're going to do about it.