This, in the Wall Street Journal, describes the reality of the uninsured and under-insured. Guess who will ultimately pay?
“Hospitals are adopting a policy to improve their finances: making medical care contingent on upfront payments.”
“The bad debt is driven by a larger number of Americans who are uninsured or who don’t have enough insurance to cover medical costs if catastrophe strikes. Even among those with adequate insurance, deductibles and co-payments are growing so big that insured patients also have trouble paying hospitals.”
“Asking patients to pay after they’ve received treatment is “like asking someone to pay for the car after they’ve driven off the lot,” says John Tietjen, vice president for patient financial services at M.D. Anderson. “The time that the patient is most receptive is before the care is delivered.”
Medicynical note: For these patients with cancer it is pay or die. One can only speculate on what happens to those who can’t pay. Is this what we, as a society, desire?
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