By Margot Sanger-Katz
The New York Times, Jan. 5, 2016
(excerpt)
Here is the surest way to enjoy the peace of mind that comes with having health insurance: Donāt get sick.
The number of uninsured Americans has fallen by an estimated 15 million since 2013, thanks largely to the Affordable Care Act. But a new survey, the first detailed study of Americans struggling with medical bills, shows that insurance often fails as a safety net. Health plans often require hundreds or thousands of dollars in out-of-pocket payments ā sums that can create a cascade of financial troubles for the many households living paycheck to paycheck.
Carrie Cota learned the hard way that health insurance does not guarantee financial security. Ms. Cota, a 56-year-old travel agent from Rosamond, Calif., learned she had the autoimmune disease lupus in 2007. She ran up thousands of dollars in medical and dental bills and ended up losing her job, and eventually her house.
āI had to move in temporarily with my ex-husband,ā she said in a recent interview. āIām staying with him until I can figure out what to do.ā
In the new poll, conducted by The New York Times and the Kaiser Family Foundation, roughly 20 percent of people under age 65 with health insurance nonetheless reported having problems paying their medical bills over the last year. By comparison, 53 percent of people without insurance said the same.
These financial vulnerabilities reflect the high costs of health care in the United States, the most expensive place in the world to get sick. They also highlight a substantial shift in the nature of health insurance. Since the late 1990s, insurance plans have begun asking their customers to pay an increasingly greater share of their bills out of pocket though rising deductibles and co-payments. The Affordable Care Act, signed by President Obama in 2010, protected many Americans from very high health costs by requiring insurance plans to be more comprehensive, but at the same time it allowed or even encouraged increases in deductibles.
āWeāre at a point where thereās been slow growth in health care costs and huge improvements in the numbers of people who have health insurance,ā said Sara Collins, a vice president at the Commonwealth Fund, a health research group. āBut there is this underlying trend towards higher cost sharing that could put increasing numbers of people at risk for being underinsured.ā
Full article, with many hyperlinks, quotes:
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/06/upshot/lost-jobs-houses-savings-even-insured-often-face-crushing-medical-debt.html?_r=0