Uninsured pay $30 billion for health care: study
 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Americans who go without health insurance for any part of 2008 will spend $30 billion out of pocket for health care and they will get $56 billion worth of free care, according to a report released on Monday.

Government programs pay for about three-quarters, or roughly $43 billion, of the bills for these uninsured people, Jack Hadley of George Mason University in Virginia and a team at the Urban Institute reported.

"Physicians' donated time and forgone profits amount to $7.8 billion. After government payments to hospitals are subtracted, private philanthropy and profit margins are responsible for at least an additional $6.3 billion," they wrote in the report, published on the Internet at http://www.healthaffairs.org/.

"From society's perspective, covering the uninsured is still a good investment. Failure to act in the near term will only make it more expensive to cover the uninsured in the future, while adding to the amount of lost productivity from not insuring all Americans," Hadley said in a statement.

On average, an uninsured American pays $583 out of pocket toward average annual medical costs of $1,686 per person, Hadley's team reported in the journal Health Affairs. The annual medical costs of Americans with private insurance average far more -- $3,915, with $681, or 17 percent, paid out of pocket, the report found.

"The uninsured receive a lot less care than the insured, and they pay a greater percentage of it out of pocket. Contrary to popular myth, they are not all free riders," Hadley said.

Current estimates show that 47 million Americans lack any health insurance, and 28 million have gone without for some part of the year. The U.S. Census bureau is scheduled to release new estimates on Tuesday.

If these people were better covered, they would spend more on health care, the researchers predicted.

"Adding the cost of the additional care to current spending by or for the uninsured, total medical care costs for newly insured people will be about $208.6 billion (roughly $3,800 per full-year-equivalent newly insured person), consisting of $122.6 billion in new spending on top of the $86 billion already in the system," Hadley's team wrote.

from: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080825/ts_nm/insurance_health_dc_2

So, by not having insurance you spend LESS on health care?

I'm one of the 47 million. So my plan is to carefully remain healthy until age 65, when medicare kicks in. And even so, that's a bit limited. For those of you who are covered, you should count your lucky stars everyday. There is no law in America that forces any employer or company to provide health insurance for its employees.

We shouldn't expect anymore from the government. After all, war is very expensive.

But you also don't tend to live as long.

Why? Somebody owes you a living?

Did I miss out on the pre-war free healthcare?

Who said anything about a living?

I'd say the biggest argument for insuring the uninsured (other than sympathy) is to help them prevent serious medical conditions whose treatment would cost the system and taxpayers more than the screening & prevention. Even with insurance screening and routine medical care tend to be very expensive, the networks are small, and the coverage cannot be relied upon.

Living, free ride, whatever. You don't earn it, you don't get it.

A cheaper way is not to get involved. You can't afford it, you don't get it. You are given the opportunity to pursue happiness not a guarantee of happiness.

Public health, like the military, environmental protection, police and fire departments . . . is an area where "the private sector" is not the best answer as of yet.

It's not necessarily cheaper. I believe one reason the US has such a violent society is the lack of affordable health care and this whole survival of the fittest attitude. A lot of people are on the edge, ready to snap. I'm not calling for more handouts or welfare, but I believe if you get sick you should be taken care of, especially if the illness is not your own fault.

Yup.

No one owes me anything (except for the ciminal who swindled me out of $50K in 1995). I am not on any government-assisted program, I have paid out close to $10K in medical & dental bills this year, and I (not the bank) own my house and 1 car. Can you say the same? I doubt you can, especially in view of the list of cars you have. Have you ever considered getting off the credit merry-go-round, and learning to read?

Survival of the fittest attitude has been working for mankind for a long time.

Well, if you want to talk finances, I don't pay more than a couple thousand for my deductables for health and we own our house and cars. Now what? Do I get a gold star? What has my list of cars got to do with anything? I bought them all used.

What credit merry-go-round am I on? The one where I rack up my daily expenses on the cards and pay them off at the end of the month so I get the bonus bucks?

When you produce something, I'll read it.