Cruel
bills

February 4, 2020 -- Medical bankruptcies are once again growing in America. After brief respite under Obamacare, these horrendous calamities are on the rise.

In Billing Quality Is Medical Quality, JAMA today writes,

In a 2018 survey of 1513 patients with stage IV breast cancer, 50% reported that they had been contacted by debt collectors regarding a medical bill, suggesting their medical bills were significantly overdue.
Imagine this: you're dying of cancer and being dunned, garnished, and sued, too.

Do we blame the hospitals and health care institutions for egregious business practices? Not so fast. Some, says the article, are indeed heartless and cutthroat:

At [some] institutions, some patients with private or no insurance receive bills with prices that exceed Medicare allowable amounts, and many patients who cannot pay may be subject to lawsuits to garnish their wages.
However, it must be recognized that in our system, healthcare is a business like any other and can't survive if it can't collect payment. Indeed, many hospitals are themselves struggling financially.

I place the blame elsewhere: on the duped public that does not support reforms that would (and, briefly, did) end these cruel practices, and on the cynical self-serving politicos who promote them. The current administration is step by step dismantling the protections we all deserve.

If you vote for them, you'd better never get sick.

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