Obamacare costs? WOW! Just WOW!

If you want some truth regarding the runaway costs, red tape & job killing fallout from Obamacare, please, please, please take a couple of hours out of your day & attend an Obamacare Q&A whenever you get the opportunity. I just sat through one that was put on by a local hospital & a law firm- apparently they are being held all over the country.
It strikes me as nothing more than austerity measures leveled on hospitals with our wallets & the quality of medical care ultimately taking the hit. Mark my word, if you think there's a disparity in America now, in regards to the haves & have nots, wait until the hospital network is seperated between those on Obamacare & those who have their own insurance.

 

The lefties don't care about a massive healthcare divide developing? I guess the hypocrisy shouldn't be surprising though, I can't imagine pompous asses like fog-of-war moen or themos(whatever his name is) bringing themselves to sit alongside some poor guy at a gov't hospital.

 

There are costs and there are costs....

Medical Bills Are the Biggest Cause of US Bankruptcies: Study

Published: Tuesday, 25 Jun 2013 | 2:29 PM ET
By: Dan Mangan | Writer

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Stigur Karlsson | E+ | Getty Images
Bankruptcies resulting from unpaid medical bills will affect nearly 2 million people this year—making health care the No. 1 cause of such filings, and outpacing bankruptcies due to credit-card bills or unpaid mortgages, according to new data. And even having health insurance doesn't buffer consumers against financial hardship.
The findings are from NerdWallet Health, a division of the price-comparison website. It analyzed data from the U.S. Census, Centers for Disease Control, the federal court system and the Commonwealth Fund, a private foundation that promotes access, quality and efficiency in the health-care system.

 

Your article is incorrect. Bankruptcies resulting from unpaid medical bills will affect nearly 320 million people if Obamacare is not stopped.

 

2 bits that were omitted in the small portion of the article fog-of-war moen quoted:
1) "I don't think Obamacare is going to get rid of the situation," LaMontagne said. "The data suggests that already-insured Americans are struggling. With the expansion of insurance, it doesn't seem like that problem will go away entirely. It's not a panacea."
2) "The number of medically related bankruptcies is slightly less than the rate of recent years."

 

David, you're correct. Moron Joe "inconveniently" left that part out, I'm sure. Come on MJ, don't dump a load of crap on the rest of us without giving us the entire load, please. Here's the entire, unedited article:

Medical Bills Are the Biggest Cause of US Bankruptcies: Study

Bankruptcies resulting from unpaid medical bills will affect nearly 2 million people this year—making health care the No. 1 cause of such filings, and outpacing bankruptcies due to credit-card bills or unpaid mortgages, according to new data. And even having health insurance doesn't buffer consumers against financial hardship.

The findings are from NerdWallet Health, a division of the price-comparison website. It analyzed data from the U.S. Census, Centers for Disease Control, the federal court system and the Commonwealth Fund, a private foundation that promotes access, quality and efficiency in the health-care system.

"A lot of Americans are struggling with medical bills," said NerdWallet Health Vice President Christina LaMontagne.

NerdWallet estimates that households containing 1.7 million people will file for bankruptcy protection this year.

Even outside of bankruptcy, about 56 million adults—more than 20 percent of the population between the ages of 19 and 64—will still struggle with health-care-related bills this year, according to NerdWallet Health.

And if you think only Americans without health insurance face financial troubles, think again. NerdWallet estimates nearly 10 million adults with year-round health-insurance coverage will still accumulate medical bills that they can't pay off this year.

High-deductible insurance plans requiring consumers to pay more out-of-pocket costs are a challenge for many households.

"With an average American family bringing home $50,000 in income, a high medical bill and a high-deductible insurance plan can quickly become something they are unable to pay," LaMontagne said. "If you have an out-of-pocket maximum of $5,000 or $10,000, that's really tough," he said.

The analysis of rising health costs is the first of its kind for NerdWallet.

(Read More: Making a Case for Self-Funded Health-Care Plans )
View attachment 1784

Obamacare 'Not a Panacea'

With millions buried under medical bills, more insured under the Affordable Care Act will not completely solve that problem, LaMontagne said. While the ACA's reforms will indeed give more people coverage, NerdWallet's data shows that millions of people with year-round, full coverage are still overwhelmed by medical bills, she said.

"I don't think Obamacare is going to get rid of the situation," LaMontagne said. "The data suggests that already-insured Americans are struggling. With the expansion of insurance, it doesn't seem like that problem will go away entirely. It's not a panacea."

(Read More: Health-Care Cost Inflation Slows)

The number of medically related bankruptcies is slightly less than the rate of recent years. Despite the anticipated 2013 dip, such bankruptcies represent about three out of every five filings.

"A lot of Americans probably think about bankruptcy as coming from unpaid credit-card debt or mortgages," LaMontagne said. "But the root cause of all those troubles may well be medical bills."

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Play Video​

Handling High Medical Costs​

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Insight on how to pay for expensive medical expenses, with CNBC's Carmen Wong Ulrich.​

Not surprisingly, more than 11 million people will take on additional credit-card debt to cover mounting medical bills, LaMontagne said. Because credit cards often charge high interest rates for unpaid balances, debt only mounts, creating a vicious cycle for consumers.

Meanwhile, NerdWallet found, 15 million people will deplete their savings to cover medical bills. Another 10 million will be unable to pay for necessities such as rent, food and utilities because of those bills.

Skipping Prescription Medications

When their savings are gone and their credit cards are maxed out, stretched consumers take the drastic step of cutting back on prescription medications.

More than 25 million people are skipping doses, taking less medication or delaying refilling prescriptions to save money, NerdWallet found.

"That statistic is actually quite troubling," LaMontagne said. Delaying needed medication is a short-term fix that only triggers more health problems in the long term, she said.

—By CNBC's Dan Mangan. Follow him on Twitter

@danpostman​

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http://www.cnbc.com/id/100840148​

 

In my 20 years in banking, I can tell you that bankruptcy trends were studied, analyzed, disected, etc. to no end. The phrase "medical bankruptcy" seems to have come about in the 80's when there was still quite a stigma attached to filings...Bankruptcy attorneys seemed to have come up with that terminolgy to take the edge off. In most cases, medical bills, though they certainly existed, were just one symptom of a greater problem. The percentage of filings coming from people with medical biils only made a up a very small percentage of the overall filings & in the vast majority of filings, medical bills, high credit card balances & big mortgage pymts all contributed equally. If we fast forward to today, you would probably have to add student loan debt to the equation.

 

Oh you were in banking? That's interesting. So in what capacity? In twenty years you probably occupied a variety of roles.

 

I'm not sure why my career is interesting to you but we all (except for iqless) have to do something, right? Fog-of-War pushes student loans, themos supposedly runs a day spa (but refuses to answer if his staff is union or not)...you?
To answer your question, other than some basic cross-training over the years, my time was spent in business consulting. I tend to forget some of you haven't been here long & have missed out on some of the details we've shared over the years. Maybe if you actually knew (or cared to know) the facts, you wouldn't apply moronic labels as you tend to do.

 

Shows what you know...which is as usual nothing. These idiots have told me that I'm a professor, that I am union thug, a terrorist of course, and countless other lives that I seem to have never lived. You have to admire their addiction to being wrong all of the time.

 

Little Davy always has a story about something that directly relates to the topic at hand that coincidentally he happened to experience. You just wouldn't think a backwoods hick like little Davy could get around so much but when you lie as much as he does for as long as he has been lying, you get the sense that the stories he tells just sound like a lot of BS after awhile.

 

These idiots actually believe that bankruptcies as a result of huge medical expenses aren't really a problem. That takes some real denial power. They are good.


NerdWallet Health Estimates 56 Million Americans under 65 will Struggle with Medical Bills in 2013

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NerdWallet Health Estimates 56 Million Americans under 65 will Struggle with Medical Bills in 2013

by christina on June 19, 2013
One in five American adults will struggle to pay medical bills this year. A sudden accident or frightening diagnosis can touch virtually anyone, unleashing mountains of bills even on the insured. In fact, medical bills are the leading cause of personal bankruptcy, a last resort after millions of families have drained their savings, maxed their credit cards and even refinanced their homes. To further understand the complexity of health costs, NerdWallet Health has compiled a series of estimates highlighting the strain of medical bills in 2013.
Summary Findings
NerdWallet estimates for 2013:

• 56M Americans under age 65 will have trouble paying medical bills
  – Over 35M American adults (ages 19-64) will be contacted by collections agencies for unpaid medical bills
  – Nearly 17M American adults (ages 19-64) will receive a lower credit rating on account of their high medical bills
  – Over 15M American adults (ages 19-64) will use up all their savings to pay medical bills
  – Over 11M American adults (ages 19-64) will take on credit card debt to pay off their hospital bills
  – Nearly 10M American adults (ages 19-64) will be unable to pay for basic necessities like rent, food, and heat due to their medical bills
• Over 16M children live in households struggling with medical bills
• Despite having year-round insurance coverage, 10M insured Americans ages 19-64 will face bills they are unable to pay
• 1.7M Americans live in households that will declare bankruptcy due to their inability to pay their medical bills
  – Three states will account for over one-quarter of those living in medical-related bankruptcy: California (248,002), Illinois (113,524), and Florida (99,780)
• To save costs, over 25M adults (ages 19-64) will not take their prescription drugs as indicated, including skipping doses, taking less medicine than prescribed or delaying a refill

“In 2013 over 20% of American adults are struggling to pay their medical bills, and three in five bankruptcies will be due to medical bills. While we are quick to blame debt on poor savings and bad spending habits, our study emphasizes the burden of health costs causing widespread indebtedness. Medical bills can completely overwhelm a family when illness strikes,” says Christina LaMontagne, VP of Health at NerdWallet. “Furthermore, 25 million people hesitate to take their medications in order to control their medical costs. Unfortunately this can lead to even worse financial outcomes as preventative treatments are not rendered and patients end up using expensive ambulance and ER care as their health worsens.”
Finally, many question whether President Obama’s universal health insurance mandate will protect Americans from problems with medical bills. “Insurance is no silver bullet,” says LaMontagne. “Even with insurance coverage, we expect 10 million Americans will face bills they are unable to pay.”
Methodology & Sources
Baseline estimate of US population in 2013: We estimated the population based on US census data for total population at the beginning of 2013 and the growth rate between 2012 and 2013, which we halved to reflect average population for calendar year 2013. All numbers were calculated off this figure.
Americans (adults & children) struggling with medical bills: There is significant variation in estimates offered by the US government, non-profits and think-tanks. We used the most conservative, government provided statistics released this month from the Center for Disease Control.
Bankruptcy: We relied on a widely cited Harvard study published in 2009. NerdWallet Health chose to include only bankruptcy explicitly tied to medical bills, excluding indirect reasons like lost work opportunities. Thus we conservatively estimated medical bankruptcy rates to be 57.1% (versus the authors’ 62.1%) of US bankruptcies. We also used official bankruptcy statistics, released this month through March 2013, from US Courts.
Behavior data (use of savings, credit cards, and prescription management): We used a 2013 Commonwealth Fund report that provided percentage estimates of affected adults and applied these figures to our base affected population numbers.
Prescription drug use: Here we used Center for Disease Control data from 2011 and scaled them to 2013 population figures.
About NerdWallet Health
NerdWallet Health provides transparency to patients, empowering them to choose better and more affordable health care. NerdWallet Health’s newly launched Hospital Price Comparison tool allows individuals to study hospital prices in their region. Please consult a health professional for medical advice.

 

You'll have to excuse me for not living in a vacuum. Heck, get out & get involved, you'd be surprised what's happening out there in the real world. It's probably below a pompous ass like you to mix with the common people but the next time you're in a store, at a restaurant or just pumping gas, strike up a conversation with the guy next to you....or travel & immerse yourself in the local culture. There's a big world out there, experience it! **Don't just sit in your room, peering out the window and watch the world go by (remember, you said you did this).
And you'll have to clarify yourself...am I the "backwoods hick" you call me today or the "privileged white guy" you've called me in the past?

 

More like entitled white guy.

 

Hey, you may get the chance to mingle with the common folk when Obamacare sends you to the gov't clininc!

 

Entitled and a backwoods hick? What a combination!

 

Anything so long as it is what he thinks of as an insult. That is what he does when he has no facts.

 

You have a point...where I come from "backwoods hick" isn't necessarily an insult. One has to be fairly well-off to afford a place that could be considered "backwoods" and given Fog-of-War's propensity for stereotypes (and the fact he's a pompous Chicago far left whack job) I don't take offense to him labeling me as a "hick" either. I wonder what his definition of a hick is anyway?

 

It's nice to see that we agree on something.

 

Well you're the one who thought your career important enough to bring up, aren't you? So of course I'm interested.

Consulting huh? To me banking implies being an employee of a bank. Or owning one. But never mind. You consulted. And obviously you did at least some of this work for banks, or financial institutions of some sort. And what kinds of things did you advise them on? You accused me of not caring to know the facts, but I DO care to know. So I'm asking.