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8:00-8:01 Billboard:
State Secret: Why Are Uninsured Patients Paying The Highest
Prices?
Are Debtor Prisons Returning To America?
8:01-8:06 Headlines
8:06-8:07 One Minute Music Break
8:07-8:35 State Secret: Why Are Uninsured Patients
Paying The Highest Prices?
INTRO: Inequality in the U.S. medical billing system leaves
the uninsured paying far more for medical care than those
with insurance. We speak with a patient who was uninsured
when she received an emergency appendectomy and was charged
five times higher than what Medicaid would have paid and others
including the Legal Aid Society's Elisabeth Benjamin author
of the report, "State Secret" which finds New York
City hospitals aren't informing patients about available state
government charity funds.
Today we take a look at the state of health care in the U.S.
today. In November, the Senate narrowly approved President
Bush's package to overhaul Medicare. And in the run up to
the 2004 presidential election, health care is one of the
main points of contention as Democratic presidential candidates
hotly debate the issue on national TV.
Well today we are going to take a look at the people who
don’t have health care in America. Rising costs of new
procedures and drugs as well as deregulation of the industry
has sent charges at virtually all hospitals across the county
soaring.
Who is to pay for these rising prices?
Well, the widespread practice among hospitals is that the
uninsured are expected to pay far more for their medical care
than large insurers, HMOs or even the U.S. government.
In other words, there is a major inequality in the billing
system: The poorest patients are billed at prices many times
higher than what insured people are charged for the same treatment.
Hospitals negotiate discounts with big institutions such
as insurance companies or the government that require payment
of only a fraction of the listed charges. These institutions
have strong bargaining power and can guarantee hospitals a
certain number of patients.
Uninsured patients, on the other hand, have no bargaining
power and aren’t even told that big institutions get
these reduced rates. As a result they end up with huge medical
bills and no way of paying them.
Hospitals then hound those patients for payment using collection
agencies and lawyers who use such methods as filing lawsuits,
slapping liens on homes, seizing bank accounts, and garnishing
wages to extract payment.
Part of the reason the uninsured cannot pay their medical
bills is because hospitals aren’t informing them about
available resources and charity care.
For example, a few states operate a funding pool for hospitals
to offset the money they spend on charity care as well as
their bad debt. The total amount of money in the pool in New
York State is approximately $847 million a year.
Today we will begin by taking a look at New York City. A
Legal Aid Society study of 22 hospitals citywide titled “State
Secret” finds that hospitals have failed to develop
a process that would let poor and uninsured patients apply
for state government funds to help pay for their hospital
care.
- Jennifer Kankiewicz, was rushed to Beth Israel hospital
in July 2002 for an emergency appendectomy and was hospitalized
for two days. The total cost she was billed for was over
$23,000. Her current bill stands at over $19,000 –
more than her annual salary.
- Elisabeth Benjamin, supervising attorney of the Health
Law Unit of The Legal Aid Society. She is the author of
the new report "State Secret: How Government Fails
To Ensure That Uninsured And Underinsured Patients Have
Access To State Charity Funds."
Link: www.legal-aid.org;
www.legal-aid.org/Uploads/BDCCReport.pdf
- Raymond Sweeney, executive vice president of the Healthcare
Association of New York State.
Link: www.hanys.org
- Mark Rukavina, executive director of the Access Project,
a Boston-based research group that focuses on health care
and the uninsured.
Link: www.accessproject.org
8:35-8:58 Are Debtor Prisons Returning To America?
INTRO: Hospitals hound uninsured patients for bill payments
and now rank among America's most aggressive debt-collectors
using one of the harshest and least-known collections tactics
of all: seeking the arrest of no-show debtors. We speak with
Jim Bean who was jailed in Illinois in part because he failed
to pay a hospital bill and we hear from the CFO of the hospital
that sought his arrest as well as a member of a grass roots
citizen action organization in Illinois.
Hospitals hound uninsured patients for medical bill payment
using collection agencies and lawyers who use such methods
as filing lawsuits, slapping liens on homes, seizing bank
accounts, and garnishing wages to extract payment.
Some hospitals now rank among America’s most aggressive
debt-collectors. Some also use one of the harshest and least-known
collections tactics of all: seeking the arrest of no-show
debtors.
Hospitals in several states have secured the arrest and even
jailing of patients who miss court hearings on their debts.
This legal tactic is chillingly known in some areas as “Body
Attachment.”
- Jim Bean, Urbana Illinois based musician who was jailed
for several hours in November 2001 in part because he failed
to pay a hospital bill.
- Claudia Lennhoff, executive director of Champaign County
Health Care in Illinois Consumers
- Robert Tonkinson, chief financial officer for Carle Foundation
Hospital, the primary teaching hospital of the University
of Illinois
8:58-8:59 Outro and Credits
For a copy of today’s program, call 1 (800) 881 2359.
Our website is www.democracynow.org.
Our email address is mail@democracynow.org.
Democracy Now! is produced by Mike Burke, Sharif Abdel Kouddous,
Ana Nogueira, Elizabeth Press, Jeremy Scahill and Parvez Sharma.
Mike Di Filippo is our engineer.
Thanks also to Uri Galed, Angela Alston, Orlando Richards,
Simba Russeau, Johnny Sender, Rich Kim, Joe Murgio, John Randolph,
Chris Zucker, Karen Ranucci, Denis Moynihan, Eric Rweyemamu,
Jenny Filipazzo and Isis Phillips.
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