Pressures on Your Health Costs

Growing Number without Insurance
The uninsured are forced to ignore basic health care requirements.  By the time they do seek treatment, their concerns have usually developed into major illnesses and are left seeking emergency room care—the most expensive kind of medical treatment.  In turn, the growing use of emergency procedures for those who can’t pay is one of the factors fueling the rise in health care costs that, eventually, are borne by everyone.  The hospitals and doctors have to soak up the unpaid costs, which ultimately falls to all Americans in the form of higher health care and insurance. 

Employers Shifting Health Care Costs
More and more employers are shifting the growing costs of health coverage to workers and retirees, forcing them to pay high out-of-pocket premiums, deductibles and co-payments.  These employers are turning to the Wal-Mart model of health care coverage, which is much too expensive for workers to afford.  These workers are being forced to rely on government programs, like Medicare, that state taxpayers pay for.  Many studies have recently shown just how much the public pays for Wal-Mart’s refusal to provide affordable health care.  For example, Wal-Mart workers in California rely on the state taxpayers for about $32 million annually in health-related services.  In Tennessee, almost 10,000 Wal-Mart employees are on the state’s expanded medicaid program.

Health Care Costs Result in Bankruptcy
Soaring medical bills are the cause of half of all bankruptcies in the U.S., according to a Harvard University study.  These bankruptcies affect about two million Americans every year, including 700,000 children.  The average income of these working families was $25,000—too much to qualify for Medicaid, but too little to afford the $10,000 average cost of family health care coverage.  Surprisingly, 76 percent of those filing for bankruptcy had health insurance at the onset of the illness that bankrupted their family. Many simply couldn’t afford to continue health insurance because they accumulated so much debt from out-of-pocket payments, co-payments, deductibles and uncovered items like physical therapy or prescription drugs.

Rising Costs of Prescription Drugs
In addition, working families and seniors are being drained by the soaring costs of prescription drugs.  The Bush Administration reconfigured the Medicare Program into a more complex, confusing and expensive system of health care.  The plan increases the costs for traditional Medicare coverage of doctor and hospital visits by $25 billion, which comes directly out of the pockets of retired Americans.  It institutes monthly fees for a Medicare drug card, but it specifically forbids Medicare from negotiating for better prices from drug companies.  The reality of the new Medicare prescription drug plan is that prices for drugs purchased with the card are higher than what is available on the market today for many prescription drugs.

Health Savings Accounts are Not the Answer
The Bush Administration answer to the health care crisis is “consumer-paid” or "market-driven" health initiatives like Health Savings Accounts (HSAs), and tax breaks paired with low-cost/less coverage plans. While low-cost plans sound good at first, having an HSA, getting a tax break, and joining a cheaper plan won’t give patients the comprehensive coverage they need. The bottom line is HSAs end up costing consumers more money while providing less health care. For example, HSAs require high out-of-pocket deductibles and other expenses, and will discourage preventive care.  <<< READ MORE