What happens when a person who has no health insurance coverage ends up in a hospital with a serious illness? For some, it means that they become permanent patients of the hospital. They end up living there, and the hospital gets stuck paying for all of their medical bills. Part of the problem is connected to dysfunctions in the health care system.
There are a lot of Americans who lack health insurance coverage. Until very recently, I was among that group. I used to say that I needed health insurance “in case I get hit by a bus and end up in the hospital”.
I was only partially joking. My biggest fear, while I was uninsured, was that I would have a serious illness that would require a lengthy hospital stay that I couldn’t afford to pay for. I worried about having to file for bankruptcy, and of losing my home.
Fortunately, I found affordable health insurance coverage before anything bad happened to me. It was a struggle to find it, but, with the help of an insurance broker, I finally found coverage. Now, if I “get hit by a bus”, I know that my health insurance policy will cover at least some of my medical bills. This is extremely reassuring.
Other people aren’t as lucky as me. Some who lack health insurance, and end up in the hospital, do eventually end up filing for bankruptcy. Others, who are even less fortunate, end up becoming permanent patients of the hospital.
Under federal law, hospitals are required to treat any patient who needs emergency medical attention. This includes patients who do not have any means of paying the hospital for those medical bills. The hospital ends up covering the cost of that patient’s care. There is no way around it.
On the one hand, this is good, because it means that poor people won’t be turned away from a hospital if they have a serious medical condition that requires emergency care simply because that person can’t afford to pay the bill. On the other hand, the federal law can result in additional expenses for the hospital to cover. Hospitals are not allowed to discharge a patient without having a plan in place for that person’s ongoing care.
Nursing facilities, and rehabilitation facilities, are not required to accept patients who cannot pay them. If that patient’s family does not have the means to provide him or her with 24 -7 medical care, then the hospital cannot discharge the patient. Nursing facilities can refuse to take a patient who does not have health insurance coverage. They also don’t have to take patients who have more complex medical needs than what the facility can provide for.
Image by Iwona Erskine-Kellie on Flickr