OPINION: Health-Care Solution: Buy in Bulk
St. Cloud Times (Minnesota)
February 8, 2005


High bills create financial woes for people, not insurers

Last week, a study funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and conducted by Harvard University stated that half of all bankruptcies in America are caused by inability to pay medical bills.

In 2001, there were 1.46 million personal bankruptcies. About three quarters of those who filed for bankruptcy because of medical debts had medical insurance. About 2 million Americans, including 700,000 children, are affected by medical-bill bankruptcies every year.

These people had catastrophic insurance coverage, but with an average bill of about $13,460 for out-of-pocket expenses, illness not listed as "catastrophic" managed to create a catastrophe for working citizens whose coverage was not adequate.

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A Kaiser Family Foundation study released in September 2004 found that some insurance premiums have had double-digit increases for each of the past four years, while insurance profits for some health-insurance providers have gone up 86 percent in 2003.

I don't think we have a health-care crisis, nor a frivolous lawsuit crisis, nor do we have a social security crisis. I think we have some crises in insurance and accountability.

According to Americans For Insurance Reform, malpractice insurance profits are among the largest. This organization also claims that insurance companies have a history of "Poor business practices, shady accounting, money lost in the stock market, and not enough profits."

For a copy of the complete article, contact AIR.