All throughout the pandemic, there has been discussion about hospital capacity and ICU beds (or lack thereof), but one thing that has not been discussed much is the resulting hospital bills for the patients who are able to be taken care of in the hospital. Even before the pandemic, medical bills had been quite costly even for individuals with insurance, and Covid has only made things worse.
For example, a family in Florida (described in the link above) was billed over $1.1 million in hospital bills for a relative who had still passed away despite the medical care. The patient was insured, but insurance was only able to pay $100,000--less than 10%. Another example is of an Arizona man who was billed over $1.4 million for the combined bills of multiple family members, also despite having some insurance (specifically, Medicaid).
What can the government do about situations like these? Healthcare reform like Obama's ACA is a difficult task, but we can always dream; other countries like Japan have demonstrated that it is indeed possible to provide universal healthcare for all residents. As a short term solution, the government can also provide stimulus checks to individuals stuck in such financial trouble. Biden is currently pushing to get a $1.9 trillion relief plan which would include such stimulus checks. For scale, if one million Americans were all billed $1 million in hospital bills, $1 trillion of stimulus checks could pay for all their expenses in theory.
As for us citizens, what can we do? For starters, we can all wear our masks and practice social distancing to prevent ourselves and others from not only contracting a deadly virus, but also from going into millions of debt.
What are other actions that can be taken by either the government or citizens?
6 comments:
While I do think that citizens do have to take some responsibility to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, and subsequently, reduce the number of these high medical bills, no person should have to deal with medical bills as high as these. A million dollar medical bill is hard for me to even begin to comprehend. It is unfair that many have to choose between their health, and even life, and other necessities gained with money, such as a house or an education. With medical bills as high as these, people will have to spend their whole lives paying these debts off. While I do understand that medical treatment may sometimes have to have some cost, prices as high as these are absurd.
In the Declaration of Independence, Jefferson wrote that every person should be guaranteed, by the government, "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." Health services exist to protect this right to live. Are medical bills as high of these going against what Jefferson said? Should people ruin their lives in order to pay for their right to live? Does the government have a responsibility to step in and assist citizens who cannot afford to keep living?
I think it is important to realize that these high medical bills and covid in general are disproportionately affecting minorities. According to the CDC, nearly 25% of employed of Hispanic and African Americans works in the service industry. This means most of them don’t make much money and are considered “essential workers.” This results in a higher amount of exposure for these minorities who can’t afford medical bills, and like Claire said, are forced to make sacrifices in terms of the quality of their lives (which aren’t that high to begin with). These people tend to vote democratic, which is why we see efforts like Obamacare and Bernie Sanders's medicare for all plan from the democratic party.
According to a pew research poll, 60% of Americans are in favor of universal healthcare. The US is the only advanced country that doesn’t have it. Why? I think the biggest reason is the insane amount of money lobby groups, like the AMA put into attacking universal healthcare. However, I think it is important to mention that single payer universal healthcare would mean dismantling the current system, which is not realistic for the people that currently work in the industry and use private insurance. Obama’s method was not perfect, but it did insure 20 million new people while keeping private insurance.
While I think stimulus checks are somewhat beneficial for being able to relieve the finances of a decent amount of Americans the $1,400 check will have little to no effect in dealing with medical bills that are over a million dollars. While there is still a great many ways to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus, such as social distancing and other policies put in place it still doesn't address the current issue of people suffering from their enormous medical bills. While it begs the question of what steps should we take as a society to help prevent these excessive bills and how should we change our current medical system. Many countries around the world have created various healthcare systems that use increased tax rates to have free public health care like Canada's Medicare. While their system isn't perfect with a lot of longer wait times it is a step in the right direction to help prevent one's burden with medical bills. Another notable medical system is Norway's medical system, while their health care isn't free there is an expenditure limit at around 1,200 kroner which is around 235 USD. Once someone passes that limit they receive an exemption card enabling to get free health care for the remainder of the year. While the trade-off for that system is again a high tax rate. However, it is a good point to bring up that Americans who get medicare through their company do actually take some sort of reduction in their wage to be able to get access to that care. The U.S. spends around 20% of its national income on health through Medicaid and other programs designed for the elderly and lower-income families (via: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/oct/25/medicare-for-all-taxes-saez-zucman). While there are many ways to go around reforming our medical system, no one should be paying medical bills that go over 5 digits.
Big Pharma's exploitation of working-class Americans must be dismantled at the legislative level. This issue has been exacerbated by the pandemic and the increased need for medical support. According to Reuters, a single vial of insulin in the US can cost upwards of 300 dollars in the USA but only 30 dollars in Canada. Those battling diabetes must sometimes make difficult choices between their medical bills and their groceries. Cancer, heart disease, car accidents, Covid-19: a few of the numerous ailments that spring upon unprecedented medical bills. Human beings should not succumb to death because they can't afford the inflated prices that Big Pharma imposes to leech off helpless people. Unfortunately, heavy lobbying by Big Pharma, supplanted by the money they rip from honest people, leaves many Congresspeople in their pockets.
I agree that there is a lot of messed up stuff in the health care industry but I do not think that universal healthcare is the solution. Nobody deserves to be exploited by Big Pharma like Anousha said, and medical bills such as these are way to big a burden for anyone. This is why my number 1 strategy is not to end up in the hospital in the first place. Like Brandon says, masks and social distancing is essential to taking preemptive measure to avoid getting sick in the first place. That's also why vaccines are very important, and government measures like seatbelts, speed limits, FDA and health requirements for food. But socialized healthcare is not the answer. While there is occasional absurd costs like seen here, in terms of quality of care, it doesn't get better than that US. Socialised healthcare systems diminish the quality of care that is given to patients, puts greater restraints on doctors and simultaneously increases the demand for healthcare. Surely, there are many issues in the healthcare system, but socialized health care is not the solution.
High medical bills are an inevitable consequence of living through a worldwide pandemic, but that doesn’t mean they can’t be solved. This post outlines how as individuals, we can contribute to the solution and I completely agree. Wearing masks, social distancing, and following the guidelines that are in place to help us make it through this are the most important things we can do. It is inconceivable to me that people are actively choosing to put other people's lives and well beings at risk for selfish reasons and conspiracy theories. As much as the pandemic is to blame for people struggling to pay necessary medical bills, the people who refuse to help us make steps toward the solution are just as much to blame.
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