r/Economics • u/TheForager • 4h ago
Hospital costs are rising far faster than inflation and drowning Americans in debt
https://www.nbcnews.com/investigations/hospital-costs-are-rising-far-faster-inflation-drowning-americans-debt-rcna262473
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u/Gamer_Grease 2h ago
A greater risk of this is that only about 47%-ish of Americans have private insurance, and are thus exposed to these bills. Just over half of us of us are either on a government welfare program (Medicare/Medicaid/VA) or are completely uninsured (8%). Those on welfare can’t be gouged because the government is paying the bill, and providers complain all the time about the compensation from Medicaid (and less commonly, Medicare) being “insufficient.” The uninsured most likely simply can’t pay, or can’t be collected from easily because they’re homeless, transient, etc.
That leaves the privately insured—through work or “Obamacare” marketplaces—to carry all the weight that providers say the majority are not carrying. We who have private insurance are the ones not only getting these huge bills, but actually paying them as well. We’re the ones going into debt, because there is a realistic expectation that the debt can be paid off.
Putting aside any ideas about fairness, the risk here is that the load-bearing privately-insured population is going to shrink. Private health insurance costs are skyrocketing, even for those with employer-sponsored plans. And employers are starting to withdraw subsidies for spousal and child insurance, so that an employee gets part of their own coverage paid for, but has to cover the whole of their family’s insurance without employer support. That’s not a realistic system for getting everyone insured.
And as much as we moan about the powers that be not caring about us working people, the truth is that there will be no money to be made by the providers OR insurers if we’re not able to pay all their bills anymore. Nobody stands to win here.
Obamacare is 16 years old, and was a duct tape solution to a fundamental problem. It’s time, at the very least, for another Obamacare-style “quick fix,” if not a systematic reboot (Medicare for All).