Healthcare reform may not reduce medical bankruptcies, study suggests [View All]

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Source: LA TImes

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Studying medical bankruptcies in Massachusetts, whose recent healthcare reform was a model for national reform, researchers found that while new insurance rules increased the number of people who had coverage, those rules did not improve coverage -- leaving many still struggling with medical debt.

Proponents of the national healthcare reform passed into law last year have claimed that it would reduce medical bankruptcy in the United States by helping more Americans get insurance. This new study, which was published Tuesday in the American Journal of Medicine, suggests that a reduction in bankruptcies is unlikely.

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The paper cited the example of the least expensive coverage available to a 56-year-old Bostonian in 2009. Such a policy carried a premium of $5,256 and a deductible of $2,000, and covered only 80% of the next $15,000 in costs for covered services. The authors calculated that an insured couple with an income greater than $44,000 (above the eligibility threshold for subsidies) could pay $20,512 for covered annual medical expenses.

Woolhandler said insurance in Massachusetts had become even more expensive in the two years since. "It's really too much money for the average family -- especially if the breadwinner is the one who gets sick," she said. Uncovered services could make costs even greater, the study reported.

Read more: http://www.latimes.com/health/boostershots/la-heb-obamacare-insurance-costs-03082011,0,7832154.story

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The researchers & authors of the study were Dr. Steffie Woolhandler and Dr. David Himmelstein were professors at Harvard when the study was conducted and are now public health professors at City University. They co-founded Physicians for a National Health Program.