Cost of uninsured adds $1,100/year to premiums of insured families

[marmar]

from ThinkProgress:



Cost of uninsured adds $1,100/year to premiums of insured families.

When the uninsured cannot pay for the care they receive, health care providers shift costs to Americans with insurance in the form of higher premiums. A new report from The Wonk Room’s Ben Furnas and Peter Harbage concludes that a failure to continuously cover all Americans accounts “for roughly 8 percent of the average health insurance premium“:

This cost-shift amounts to $1,100 per average family premium in 2009 and $410 per average individual premium. By 2013, assuming the cost shift remains the same percentage of premium costs, the cost shift will be approximately $480 for an individual policy and $1,300 for a family policy.

Read the full report here.



http://thinkprogress.org/2009/03/24/cost-shift-uninsured/

[JohnWxy]

1. great post. Thanks. Bookmarked, Recommended.

This would be appreciated over on Economy Forum.

[RB TexLa]

2. Damn, what about all the people who tell me that my having an HSA and much lower premiums

is what raises their cost by my not giving more money to the insurer? I've been told that all HSA owners should have their accounts seized and have to pay the highest premium for 10 or 5 years to pay back what we have gotten out of paying by being healthy.


So it wasn't really me causing their premiums to go up. Good.

[eridani]

7. Do you also get a property tax refund for not having a fire?

HSAs are simple theft; abosolutely antithetical to the very concept of risk sharing.

[Trekologer]

9. Its not theft at all

I personally am not a fan of HSA's but typically someone who has an HSA will also have an insurance policy that has a higher coinsurance. So while they're paying lower premiums (and yes not sharing as much risk) the insurance is expending less on each claim. With an the funds from an HSA, you can pay the coinsurance tax free. The hope is that the the savings from reduced premiums offset the increased coinsurance costs.

[eridani]

10. In other words--

--you reduce the number of health care dollars available to help people who are a lot less affluent. Not making a moral judgment here--I used an HSA to get a tax write-off on $4000 hearing aids. Just pointing out that this is class privilege which screws those who don't have it.

[napi21]

3. I'm surprised it's not higher than that. I suspect they didn't include

the extreme high cost uninsured individuals who have the money have to pay. ninsured people don't get the advantage of discounted rates negotiated by the ins. co's.

[Hello_Kitty]

4. Nah, it's too easy to demonized uninsured people

Who, as we all know, are young and healthy and have tons of disposable cash from their great jobs waiting tables or doing oil changes to spend on expensive individual policies (that are nothing but bullshit catastrophic coverage with high out-of-pocket costs) which they are wantonly and selfishly withholding from the insurance system. Let's pretend there are no preexisting conditions either.

[napi21]

5. I hope you didn't think I was demonizing the uninsured? I wasn't.

I have a clse friend who is the finance mgr. of a giant hospital system in another State. I've asked her to explain to me why they charge $10.00 for an asprin, etc. There are a lot more than "young people" who have to use the ER as their Dr's office because they can't afford to visit a local physician or clinic. Under the law, they must be treated in the ER, but if those costs are not paid by ins. or the individual, they are spread across all the other patients. After negotiating with the ins. co's, any of those left over unpaid costs are added to the bills of those patients who do have some $$% to pay for their care. And yes there are some people who feel their healthy enough that they will risk paying for an emergency instead of paying for insurance. They feel they will come out ahead, and most of the time do!

[Hello_Kitty]

6. Not at all. I was just adding to what you said. Should've used the sarcasm thingy!

And yes there are some people who feel their healthy enough that they will risk paying for an emergency instead of paying for insurance. They feel they will come out ahead, and most of the time do!

Definitely. For many young people it's a perfectly rational decision. If I'm a 24 year old at some crappy $8 an hour job with no benefits why should I buy an expensive insurance policy that's going to make me spend a lot of money before the coverage kicks in anyway? It makes a helluva a lot more sense to take my chances.

[Vinca]

8. Uninsured families end up in the hole a lot further than the cost of premiums.

That's why there are so many bankruptcies associated with medical care. How can you expect people to pay for a $12,000 policy (no bells and whistles) when their total income is $30,000 or less? Or $40,000 or more even? In some places average rents are in the thousands not hundreds. Single payer is the only answer.