Back to Blog
Bills to pay her bills5/6/2023 ![]() ![]() Hospitals and other medical providers are pushing millions into credit cards and other loans. Now, a highly lucrative industry is capitalizing on patients' inability to pay. ![]() Instead, they've faced thousands of dollars in bills as health insurers shifted costs onto patients through higher deductibles. Many hospitals thrived even through the pandemic.īut for many Americans, the law failed to live up to its promise of more affordable care. Hospitals recorded their most profitable year on record in 2019, notching an aggregate profit margin of 7.6%, according to the federal Medicare Payment Advisory Committee. Yet it also ushered in years of robust profits for the medical industry, which has steadily raised prices over the past decade. The law expanded insurance coverage to tens of millions of Americans. Patient debt is piling up despite the landmark 2010 Affordable Care Act. That is because much of the debt that patients accrue is hidden as credit card balances, loans from family, or payment plans to hospitals and other medical providers. The investigation reveals a problem that, despite new attention from the White House and Congress, is far more pervasive than previously reported. The three are among more than 100 million people in America ― including 41% of adults ― beset by a health care system that is systematically pushing patients into debt on a mass scale, an investigation by KHN and NPR shows. Ward, a nurse practitioner, took on extra nursing shifts, working days and nights. Elizabeth and Nick Woodruff of Binghamton, New York, were sued for nearly $10,000 by the hospital where Nick's infected leg was amputated.Įlizabeth Woodruff drained her retirement account and took on three jobs after she and her husband were sued for nearly $10,000 by the New York hospital where his infected leg was amputated.Īriane Buck, a young father in Arizona who sells health insurance, couldn't make an appointment with his doctor for a dangerous intestinal infection because the office said he had outstanding bills.Īllyson Ward and her husband loaded up credit cards, borrowed from relatives, and delayed repaying student loans after the premature birth of their twins left them with $80,000 in debt. ![]()
0 Comments
Read More
Leave a Reply. |