DISTURBING FACTS

Medical Bills Cause More Than Half of All Bankruptcies
The number of U.S. personal bankruptcies that involved medical bills increased 50 percent in just six years. Sixty percent of people who filed for bankruptcy had medical bills they could not pay. Of those, more than 75 percent had health insurance but still were overwhelmed by their medical debts.

The study, published in the the American Journal of Medicine, was carried out by researchers at Harvard Law School, Harvard Medical School and Ohio University.

According to the study: "Using a conservative definition, 62.1 percent of all bankruptcies in 2007 were medical; 92 percent of these medical debtors had medical debts over $5,000, or 10 percent of pretax family income... Most medical debtors were well-educated, owned homes and had middle-class occupations."

90% of Medical Bills CONTAIN ERRORS, According to MBAA

According to the website for the Medical Billing Advocates of America, “Studies have shown that as many as 9 out of 10 medical bills from hospitals and providers contain errors. Their errors are compounded by the fact that insurance companies are not reimbursing correctly--they just pay the incorrect bills unquestioningly, but deny legitimate charges.”

Insurance Premiums Have Skyrocketed, Going Up More Than 87% In The Past Six Years
Washington, DC – Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) joined Health Care for America Now (HCAN) – the nation's largest health care campaign – in releasing a new report today that shows extreme health insurance industry consolidation has resulted in a market failure where a small number of large companies use their concentrated power to control premium levels, benefit packages, and provider payments in the markets they dominate. As a result, health insurance premiums have skyrocketed, going up more than 87% - on average - over the past six years.

After reviewing the report entitled “Premiums Soaring in Consolidated Health Insurance Market,” David Balto, former Policy Director of the Federal Trade Commission and now a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress, sent a letter -co-signed by HCAN - to the Department of Justice Antitrust Division asking for a comprehensive investigation into the health insurance marketplace.

"The HCAN report provides a much needed spotlight on health insurance markets, and what it found is a toxic marketplace where competition and consumers suffer,” said Balto. “Unfortunately, antitrust enforcers have been asleep at the switch for the past several years and have permitted health insurers to acquire monopolies in dozens of markets. Consumers have paid a steep price for this merger mania in higher prices, deceptive and fraudulent practices, and ultimately assembly line health care."

In the past 13 years, more than 400 corporate mergers have involved health insurers, and a small number of companies now dominate local markets but haven't delivered on promises of increased efficiency. According to the American Medical Association, 94 percent of insurance markets in the United States are now highly concentrated, and insurers are thriving in the anti-competitive marketplace, raking in enormous profits and paying out huge CEO salaries. Profits at 10 of the country's largest publicly traded health insurance companies rose 428 percent from 2000 to 2007. In 2007 alone, the chief executive officers at these companies collected combined total compensation of $118.6 million—an average of $11.9 million each. That is 468 times more than the $25,434 an average American worker made that year. Moreover, the health insurance industry invests more in buying back its own stock and rewarding its shareholders than in improving system operations, reducing premiums, or in developing ways to pay doctors and hospitals fairly.

“Talk about an unfair advantage,” said Richard Kirsch, National Campaign Manager, Health Care for America Now. “There is nothing more unfair than the way the current monopolistic private health insurance market controls both cost and coverage. The Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice should take a long, hard look at the way this industry operates. It needs rules. It needs regulation. And most importantly, it needs real competition from a public health insurance option.”

“It will be extremely difficult to return competition to the farm after the barn door has been left open,” Balto explained. “Insurance companies will fight tooth and nail against any antitrust or consumer protection enforcement, and they have the monopoly profits to fund a One Hundred Years War of litigation.”

Healthcare Profits Soar

A new report by Health Care for America NOW points out that profits at 10 of the country’s largest publicly-traded health insurance companies in 2007 rose 428 percent from 2000 to 2007 (that's about 60% per year!), from $2.4 billion to $12.9 billion. Also in 2007, the chief executive officers at these companies collected combined total compensation of $118.6 million — an average of $11.9 million each. Link:

http://healthcareforamericanow.org/site/content/new_report_private_insurers_consolidate_and_control_prices

Health Care for U.S. Kids Falls Short By Catherine Arnst / BusinessWeek,

More evidence that the U.S. health-care system is far from stellar: It seems that even white, middle-class, well-insured children get poor quality health care more often than not. A large study published in the New England Journal of Medicine found that American children receive recommended health-care procedures only 46% of the time when they see a doctor. In fact, children get even worse care than adults, who receive appropriate care about half the time, according to a similar survey published in 2003.

"Taken together, these studies show that no one, anywhere, is immune from poor quality of care [in the U.S.]," says lead researcher Rita Mangione-Smith of Seattle Children's Hospital Research Institute.

The researchers, from the Rand Corp. and University of Washington as well as Seattle Children's, reviewed the medical records of 1,536 children from 12 metropolitan areas around the country and assessed 175 measures of quality in 12 clinical areas. They found that children in the U.S. do not routinely receive regular weight and measurement checks, widely recommended screening tests, or standard care for asthma and diarrhea. "As a pediatrician, I was shocked by some of our findings," says Mangione-Smith. "I rescreened several of the charts because I couldn't believe the results we were getting."

The children in the study were predominantly from white, middle- or upper-middle-class families; 82% were covered by private insurance. Children without insurance likely fare far worse, the researchers noted.