CONTACTS 

SUBJECTS
Bankruptcies 60% Medical Billings Charges Payments Bill Collection S

0703 -
0703 -    ..
0704 - Summary/Objective
0705 -
070501 - Follow up
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070504 -
070506 -  ..
0706 -
0707 -
0708 - Progress
0709 -
070901 - Article in Reuters reports...
070902 -
070903 - Kaiser and UCSF have tried to force Millie to pay for medical costs
070904 - which are covered by Millie's insurance policy with Kaiser.  On 070830
070905 - UCSF billings presented gross overcharges of 300%, in that the charge
070906 - should be 20% and UCSF charged 56% ref SDS 2 QW8M
070908 -  ..
070909 - Basic problem is Kaiser fails to require providers to disclose charges
070910 - in advance of services, contrary to requirements of good management,
070911 - reported on 070829. ref SDS 1 SF52
070913 -  ..
070914 - Example of improper medical billings forcing people into bankruptcy,
070915 - reported in article published by AARP, reported on 071018 1641.
070916 - ref SDS 3 CS5P
070917 -
070919 -     ..
070920 -    Medical bills underlie 60 percent of U.S. bankrupts: study
070921 -
070923 -     ..
070924 -    By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor Maggie Fox, Health And
070925 -    Science Editor
070927 -     ..
070928 -    Thu Jun 4, 2009 11:54 am ET
070929 -
070930 -           http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090604/ts_nm/us_healthcare_bankruptcy
070932 -         ..
070933 -    1.  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Medical bills are behind more than 60
070934 -        percent of U.S. personal bankruptcies, U.S. researchers
070935 -        reported on Thursday in a report they said demonstrates that
070936 -        healthcare reform is on the wrong track.
070938 -         ..
070939 -    2.  More than 75 percent of these bankrupt families had health
070940 -        insurance but still were overwhelmed by their medical debts,
070941 -        the team at Harvard Law School, Harvard Medical School and Ohio
070942 -        University reported in the American Journal of Medicine.
070944 -         ..
070945 -    3.  "Unless you're Warren Buffett, your family is just one serious
070946 -        illness away from bankruptcy," Harvard's Dr.  David
070947 -        Himmelstein, an advocate for a single-payer health insurance
070948 -        program for the United States, said in a statement.
070950 -         ..
070951 -    4.  "For middle-class Americans, health insurance offers little
070952 -        protection," he added.
070954 -         ..
070955 -    5.  The United States is embarking on an overhaul of its healthcare
070956 -        system, now a patchwork of public programs such as Medicare for
070957 -        the elderly and disabled and employer-sponsored health
070958 -        insurance that leaves 15 percent of the population with no
070959 -        coverage.
070961 -         ..
070962 -    6.  The researchers and some consumer advocates said the study
070963 -        showed the proposals under the most serious consideration are
070964 -        unlikely to help many Americans.  They are pressing for a
070965 -        so-called single payer plan, in which one agency, usually the
070966 -        government, coordinates health coverage.
070968 -         ..
070969 -    7.  "Expanding private insurance and calling it health reform will
070970 -        fail to prevent financial catastrophe for hundreds of thousands
070971 -        of Americans every year," Dr.  Sidney Wolfe of the Health
070972 -        Research Group at Public Citizen said in a statement.
070974 -         ..
070975 -    8.  About 170 million people get health insurance through an
070976 -        employer but President Barack Obama says soaring healthcare
070977 -        costs hurt the economy and force businesses to drop medical
070978 -        insurance for their workers.
070980 -         ..
070981 -    9.  CANCELED COVERAGE
070982 -
070983 -        "Nationally, a quarter of firms cancel coverage immediately
070984 -        when an employee suffers a disabling illness; another quarter
070985 -        do so within a year," the report reads.
070987 -         ..
070988 -   10.  Obama told Congress on Wednesday he was open to making
070989 -        mandatory health insurance part of the overhaul.
070991 -         ..
070992 -   11.  Neither Congress nor Obama are considering the kind of
070993 -        single-payer plan advocated by Public Citizen, Himmelstein and
070994 -        his colleague Dr.  Steffie Woolhandler.
070996 -         ..
070997 -   12.  "We need to rethink health reform," Woolhandler said. "Covering
070998 -        the uninsured isn't enough.
071000 -         ..
071001 -   13.  "Only single-payer national health insurance can make
071002 -        universal, comprehensive coverage affordable by saving the
071003 -        hundreds of billions we now waste on insurance overhead and
071004 -        bureaucracy."
071006 -         ..
071007 -   14.  The researchers studied 2,134 random families who filed for
071008 -        bankruptcy between January and April in 2007, before the
071009 -        current recession began.
071011 -         ..
071012 -   15.  They used public bankruptcy court records and surveyed 1,032
071013 -        people by telephone.
071015 -         ..
071016 -   16.  "Using a conservative definition, 62.1 percent of all
071017 -        bankruptcies in 2007 were medical; 92 percent of these medical
071018 -        debtors had medical debts over $5,000, or 10 percent of pretax
071019 -        family income," the researchers wrote.
071021 -         ..
071022 -   17.  "Most medical debtors were well-educated, owned homes and had
071023 -        middle-class occupations."
071025 -         ..
071026 -   18.  The researchers, funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation,
071027 -        said the share of bankruptcies that could be blamed on medical
071028 -        problems rose by 50 percent from 2001 to 2007.
071030 -         ..
071031 -   19.  Patients with multiple sclerosis paid a mean of $34,167 out of
071032 -        pocket in 2007, diabetics paid $26,971, and those with injuries
071033 -        paid $25,096, the researchers found.
071034 -
071035 -   20.  (Editing by Bill Trott and Jackie Frank)
071036 -        Copyright c 2009 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved.
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