Obamacare to save U.S. hospitals $5.7 bln in uncompensated care -govt

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Reuters

Obamacare to save U.S. hospitals $5.7 bln in uncompensated care -govt
Source: Reuters - Wed, 24 Sep 2014 20:00 GMT

By David Morgan and Roberta Rampton

WASHINGTON, Sept 24 (Reuters) - The Obama administration on Wednesday said it expects expanded health coverage under the Affordable Care Act to save U.S. hospitals $5.7 billion this year on the cost of caring for uninsured Americans.

A report by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said nearly three-quarters of the savings, $4.2 billion, would occur in states that have opted to expand the Medicaid healthcare program for the poor as part of the law, popularly known as Obamacare.

The data may help hospitals press for Medicaid expansion in the 23 states whose governors have not agreed to it, said Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell.

"We're now at a phase where we're actually going to start seeing the benefits" of expansion, Burwell told reporters. "It's actually showing that this provides benefits to states."


Read more: http://www.trust.org/item/20140924200012-hy86i/

[JDPriestly]

1. This is the "big deal" that will lower medical costs all around. It will just take a little time.

Wait and see. Obamacare will save many lives and make our health care more affordable. Love it.

[Lenomsky]

3. Can you translate for me?

So basically Obama has underwritten health care (ACA) for the poor and so hospitals will get paid for the work they have done and will do sometimes for free. I'm from UK trying to understand your health care system!?

So does ACA reduce costs by negotiating with insurance providers and get better deals due to volume?

Curious not read enough about it.

Ta

[LittleGirl]

7. Sort of but nothing like your system

Go to the white house dot gov site and check out their summary of the health care law.

[JDPriestly]

17. Hospitals are private. Some are linked to health care insurance companies. Many are not.

Hospitals are required by law to provide emergency care to all who come to them. When not all of those who request services in the emergency (and the rest of the hospital) care are covered by an insurance policy and if a certain number of patients who appear to be insured are not covered for their care, the hospital faces either a loss or charging other patients who are insured for the cost of the healthcare they get more for their services.

Previously the government covered healthcare for very indigent people. That was funded at the state level, and eligibility for the healthcare insurance for the poor was limited to only those who qualified based on their income and other information.

Now, more people are insured, and Obamacare requires the insurance companies to pay for more services and procedures than before. The hospitals, which until now had to balance their books by charging paying patients for the losses due to the cost of caring for patients unable to pay -- those who fell between the cracks of the privately insured and government-insured, will now face a lower loss level. Insurance, some funded by the government, some not , will pay a larger share of the previously unpaid bills.

The hope, and I believe the promise, is that as the previously uninsured can and do get access to primary care which is more inexpensively delivered and which prevents or treats conditions that become very serious and land patients in hospitals, demand for hospital and especially emergency room care will diminish.

I believe that Obamacare will reduce the overall cost of medical care in the US for those two reasons. Hospitals will be able to better allocate the real cost of medical care to the patients and procedures so as to get a more realistic view on the costs (which hospitals may then be able to reduce. A more honest picture of the costs of hospital services will improve cost controls eventually.) Second, the number of patients requesting emergency care which is very expensive to deliver should decline thus saving a lot of money viewed from a national perspective.

Hope my explanation is clear. I am a bit tired this morning.

[Scuba]

2. This is the difference between make or break for some of these hospitals.

[quadrature]

4. more money for thieves

what's not to like?

[davidthegnome]

5. Hmm

I live in Maine (one of those 23 states) and when I initially tried to apply for insurance under the ACA, I was told I made too little money and would have to file for Mainecare. The Mainecare program has been a favorite for budget cuts under this current Governor's administration - and many, many people have lost their insurance. Even college students, who suddenly find work.

I'm all for saving money and insuring people... but, you know, as someone who would have to pay expenses out of pocket... I don't think I'll ever really be satisfied until EVERYONE has access to care, whether it be dental, physical, or mental health related. If you visit the ER uninsured, or require a test, whether it's an x-ray, MRI, Pet scan, cat scan, whatever... you will be charged in the thousands of dollars. For someone like me, already buried under student loan debt, it's a damn good reason not to go to the hospital, no matter how sick I may be. It's a good reason not to get an eye exam, or to get dental work done, or to visit a therapist when I struggle with depression.

It's the simple fact that I can't afford it - any of it. I work almost forty hours a week, which pays for the car to get to work, car insurance, food and basic necessities. At 8.50 an hour, the idea of having to pay 500 bucks for an initial evaluation for a health issue... is really kind of bizarre. Mind boggling. I'd have to save about two weeks pay, just for that, and pay for nothing else in the meantime. Can't do it.

The real sickness with our health care system is the profit motive. Until we can eliminate that, thousands, even millions of people who need help will not get it.

Great that someone is saving money, great that some people are insured. The rest of us though, we're still kind of wondering how the fuck we could ever justify a 400 dollar appointment with a physician, or a test costing thousands of dollars to tell us if a couple ribs are cracked.

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

10. You need to vote! Your governor is a nutcase! He refuses to expand Medicaid. That's why your coverag

is so expensive. You're not getting the federal subsidies guaranteed and already paid for.

Vote in November and get rid of that jerk.

Don't blame the wrong person: President Obama! He is NOT the enemy. These Republican governors who are deliberately refusing not to expand Medicaid coverage are doing so because they know (1) poor people won't get coverage they need; (2) those people in turn will blame Obama, not understanding how the ACA works.

whitehouse.gov

Please look up the ACA Health Care law to learn more and how it is supposed to work for you.

I don't know about Maine, but the state is supposed to set up health care exchanges. Has this happened? The crazy-ass Teabagger governor you have may not have established those health care exchanges. He simply refuses to expand Medicaid.

[davidthegnome]

12. Thanks for your reply.

I don't blame the President. My Governor is a jackass, but he's only a tiny part of the problem himself. What we need, what we have needed for a long time, is a healthcare industry that lacks a profit motive.

The way to do this is really pretty simple. Single payer. Many of us on the left have been fighting for this for years. A system that does not discriminate based on your wealth, but that exists for the sole purpose of treating patients, healing injuries, curing diseases, prevention, nutrition, etc.

How much money is poured into these insurance companies every year? Could we not spend it instead on a system that worked for everyone? No exceptions, just simply making medical care available for everyone. Such a policy might even attract more Doctors, nurses and health care professionals to our Country. Coupled with reasonable compensation for hospital staff and a more competent governing body (for the healthcare system overall) I believe we could honestly pull it off in a way that benefited the whole of the population. Ultimately, I suspect there might even be ways to save money with this system.

I admit that I don't have all the answers, but it has always seemed to me that a healthcare industry that is run like a profit based business is... wrong, for lack of a better word. Poor oversight, fraud, red tape, paperwork and fine print... I am sick to death of dealing with all of the nonsense.

We are already taxed for medicare, which is a somewhat similar concept. I don't know about the rest of you, but even at my small pay, I would gladly and eagerly pay something more in taxes for a system that was there for everyone.

It is important to vote - and I have done so every election since I was old enough to. Yet it is also important to recognize that the system that treats our sick and our injured... is deeply sick and injured, almost unimaginably so. Past time to fix it. The ACA is better than what we had before, but it is a band aid on a severed limb, a lot of the problems we had before still exist - and we've created some new ones, too.

If everyone in America voted for such a system, I believe we would be in favor. The hard right could cry socialism all they wanted, they could label us commies, demons, evil nazi bastards or whatever they wanted. We would have health insurance. We could go to a doctor when we were sick or injured, to a psychiatrist when we were hopeless, to a Dentist when we needed a root canal. I think we would win.

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

13. I agree 100%. We all wanted single payer. We all wanted--at the very least--a public option.

We couldn't get either and that was because both cowardly Democrats and Republicans would never allow that to happen.

So what we have now is the ACA. There will be opportunities to improve on this, provided we get the right people in office.

Ultimately, single payer is the answer; however, we also need to be realistic about what is politically possible.

I see your governor as being 100% the problem. All he has to do is approve the expansion; it's already paid for. Approve the expansion and you'll get the subsidies that you need to help you.

Good luck. I'll be keeping an eye on Maine.

[Cha]

6. Thanks Obama! Mahalo JL

[tabasco]

8. Already seeing it here at my community hospital!

They love the ACA at the hospital.

[Beakybird]

9. I'm loving it

The good news is that a lot of lower middle class people who previously had no insurance or bare bone insurance aren't going to get bled to death by hospital bills.

I'm a professional musician, and I love my Medicaid benefits. My daughter is getting braces, and it would have bled us dry to come up with $6000. I know that you Republicans want my daughter to have buck teeth.

So let's see, the hospitals are doing better, the insurance companies are doing better, the poor and middle class are benefiting. A few rich people are paying slightly higher taxes, pocket change for them.

Universal health care would be better, but this is definitely an improvement over a ruthlessly horrible system. And it remains ruthless in the states that won't expand Medicaid.

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

11. Thank you and congratulations! I hope our friend from Maine reads your post.

[redruddyred]

14. republicans forget that medical care was already socialized via e-room visits.

but just very stupidly.

[Sunlei]

15. wish we could ALL pay premiums to Medicaid instead of to the 'for profit' insurance/hospital system

[Stuart G]

16. K AND R .no text..