By Rose Ann DeMoro
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
August 12, 2007
News that some doctors in South Florida will now be charging patients annual “administrative fees” like credit card companies or banks is a sober reminder of how out of control our increasingly dysfunctional healthcare system has become, and in need of genuine, comprehensive reform.
On the same day the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported the latest trend of doctors’ fees — on top of the other out-of-pocket charges for co-pays and deductibles — a Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll August 2 found that “costs of health care” is the top economic concern for Americans. Those findings echoed what has become a steady drumbeat this year. What is now evident is the problem is no longer just the 45 million Americans without health coverage, but increasingly the health insecurity for those already insured.
In January, a vice president of the Kaiser Family Foundation testified to the House Ways and Means Committee that one in six adults who are privately insured have “substantial problems paying their medical bills.”
In February, the journal /Health Affairs /projected out-of-pocket costs for consumers would jump 76 percent within the next decade.
In March, the journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics noted that families with high deductible health plans are far more likely to put off needed care due to the cost.
In April, Harvard researchers found that higher healthcare costs place a particularly harsh burden on women who typically have greater medical needs than men.
In July, a Rand study in the /Journal of the American Medical Association /reported that for each 10 percent hike in out-of-pocket costs, patients stop buying up to 6 percent of needed prescription drugs.
Some doctors may well feel squeezed by a health care industry where higher revenues and increased market share seem to be the new Hippocratic oath. But every additional tax and fee only exacerbates the crisis for patients and families.
And public anger is increasing at those who are profiting off their pain and health insecurity. The /Journal//NBC poll on Americans’ views on the economy also asked respondents to rate their confidence in 16 varied institutions. The bottom rung was firmly held by health insurance companies.
Those polled may not know the numbers, but they would probably not be surprised to learn that insurance industry profits jumped from $20.8 billion in 2002 to $57.5 billion in 2006. In the same period, drug company profits went from $64.4 billion to $94.8 billion, according to a June report by the Institute for Health and Socio-Economic Policy, the research arm of the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee.
Americans have had enough. Several recent polls have documented that two-thirds believe the government should guarantee healthcare for everyone, even if it means an increase in taxes.
There is one reform that accomplishes that goal — HR 676 in Congress, a single-payer system in the form of an expanded and enhanced Medicare for all. It would cover everyone with comprehensive benefits, choice of physician and hospitals, and end the thousand daily cuts of co-pays, deductibles, and new administrative fees. Perhaps best of all, it gets the insurance companies out of the way.
The public is ready. Now we just need our legislators and presidential candidates to follow.
Rose Ann DeMoro is executive director of the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee, www.calnurses.org.