Americans
Had To Borrow 88 BILLION Dollars To Cover Their Medical Bills Last Year
839
SHARES
I know
that the headline sounds outrageous, but it is actually true. According
to a brand new report that was just released, Americans had to borrow 88
billion dollars to cover their medical bills last year. That is a truly
astounding number, and it shows just how dramatically our current health care
system has failed. And even though the vast majority of Americans are
covered by “health insurance”, millions of us are deathly afraid to go to the
hospital because of what it might cost. Today, two-thirds of all personal
bankruptcies in the United States are caused by medical bills, and
most of the people going bankrupt actually had health insurance. Overall,
more than half a million American families are financially ruined by medical
bills each year, and meanwhile our “representatives” in Washington are doing
absolutely nothing to fix the problem.
Surveys have shown that up to two-thirds of the country is living
paycheck to paycheck at least part of the time, and an unexpected medical bill
can be absolutely devastating for those that are just barely scraping by.
Without
much of a financial cushion to fall back on, many families must borrow money
when confronted with a large medical expense, and the scale at which this is
happening is absolutely stunning…
Health care costs in the United
States are generally measured as the highest in the world. Last year, many
Americans could not afford their health care costs and so borrowed $88 billion
to pay for that portion they could not afford.
According
to a new West Health and Gallup poll, in a new report titled “The U.S. Healthcare Cost Crisis,” the
$88 billion was borrowed in the year before the survey, which was done from
January 14 to February 20. The poll was conducted via a random group of 3,537
adults over 18 living in the 50 states and the District of Columbia.
How in the world is this possible?
After
all, more than 90 percent of
all Americans have some form of health coverage. So why did Americans
need to borrow 88 billion dollars to cover their unpaid medical bills last year
alone?
Well,
first of all it is important to remember that health insurance deductibles have
gotten obscenely huge. The following numbers come from a CNN article about Obamacare…
The law sets a ceiling on how much consumers have to spend on
health care. In 2019, it’s $7,900 for a single person and double that for a
family. Some bronze plans peg their deductibles to those levels.
The
average deductible for a 2019 bronze policy — which have higher deductibles,
but lower premiums than other tiers of Obamacare plans — is nearly $5,900,
while the average maximum of out-of-pocket limit is just under $7,000,
according to Health Pocket, an online health insurance shopping tool. Family bronze
plans have an average deductible of just under $12,200 and an average
out-of-pocket maximum of nearly $14,000.
Secondly, even if you have surpassed your deductible, there is
still no guarantee that your health insurance company will cover your medical bills.
If you do not jump through every single little hoop they want you to jump
through, in many instances they will leave you high and dry. When I was
running for Congress I had personal conversations with so many people that had
been screwed over by the health insurance companies. The more claims they
deny, the more money they make, and they have become masters at finding even
the smallest loophole that will enable them to wiggle off the hook.
Of course there are some health insurance companies out there that
are doing a good job, but the bad apples give the entire industry a very bad
name.
We have a system that is deeply broken, and it greatly frustrates
me that both political parties seem so uninterested in getting a solution
through Congress.
Here are some more numbers that show the current state of the U.S.
health care system…
–3.7 trillion dollars was
spent on health care in the United States in 2018. That breaks down to
$10,739 per person.
–76 percent of Americans
believe that they pay too much for the quality of health care that they
receive.
-Pharmaceutical
companies spend approximately
30 billion dollars a year to market their drugs to all of us.
–Nearly half of all U.S. doctors
are considering leaving the field of medicine, and health insurance
companies are the primary reason.
-The
median charge for visiting an emergency room in the United States is well over a thousand dollars.
When I was growing up, my mother took me and my siblings to the
doctor constantly. But I don’t know anyone that does that today, because
it would be ridiculously expensive in most cases.
And one
recent survey actually found that 41 percent of all Americans decided against
an emergency room visit last year “due to cost”…
Another major personal financial concern
among Americans is that 45% worry that a “major health care event” would leave
them bankrupt, the West Health-Gallup survey found. Additionally, in the past
year, 41% said they did not visit an emergency room due to cost.
Fifteen
million Americans “deferred” purchasing prescription drugs in the past
year because of costs as well. Finally, 76% believe the problem will become
worse because health care costs will rise more over the next two years.
Fixing
our horribly broken health care system needs to be a top national
priority, but earlier today Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell made it abundantly clear that
nothing will be done about Obamacare in the Senate until the 2020
election. And of course the Democrats are not going to make any major
moves on health care until the 2020 election either.
Unfortunately, we are stuck with what we have got for the moment.
Our health care crisis is a national nightmare that never seems to
end, and it gets worse with each passing year.
So for now, just hope that nobody in your family becomes seriously
ill, because if that happens there is a good chance you might go bankrupt.
About the
author: Michael Snyder is a nationally-syndicated writer, media
personality and political activist. He is the author of four books including Get Prepared Now, The Beginning Of The End and Living A Life That Really Matters. His articles are originally published on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News. From there, his articles are republished on
dozens of other prominent websites. If you would like to republish his
articles, please feel free to do so. The more people that see this information
the better, and we need to wake more people up while there is still time.
No comments:
Post a Comment