More and more medical bills paid on credit (medical credit cards predicted)

[cyberpj]

Let's all be sure to thank the proper congresspeople for their support of last year's consumer bashing bankruptcy bill that continues to abuse the working class. The article also predicts that medical companies will now start offering their own credit cards!!

More and more medical bills paid on credit
Practice good for banking industry, not so good for consumers
By LESLIE A. PAPPAS, The News Journal
Posted Wednesday, January 17, 2007

Americans struggling with soaring health care costs are increasingly paying with credit cards, according to a report released Tuesday. Delaware's credit card industry, which employs about 15,400 people, stands to benefit from the rising health care and medical costs, mainly in the form of penalties for late payments.

snip...
"Over the past six years, health insurance premiums have increased by 73.8 percent while median income has grown by only 11.6 percent. A family health insurance policy is now equivalent to 18 percent of median family income, up from 8 percent in 1987."

The banking industry does not report how much credit card debt is due to medical expenses, said Tracey Mills of the American Bankers Association. But medical costs are one of the top three reasons people go into bankruptcy, Mills said.

snip...
Report co-author Cindy Zeldin said credit card debt could increase as financial service companies market an increasing array of health care products, including medical credit cards and lines of credit.

"The credit industry is viewing this as a potentially lucrative segment to add to their portfolio," said Zeldin, director of the Economic Opportunity Program at Demos, a New York-based research and policy group.

http://www.delawareonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070117/BUSINESS/301170015/1003/NEWS

[LynnTheDem]

1. $400 billion -so far & no end in sight- to invade & occupy a nation

that hadn't been doing one damn thing to anyone.

War is far more important to the bush regime than the health of Americans.

[TechBear_Seattle]

2. The parents of a friend of mine were driven to bankrupcy because of medical bills

Worse, they ended up having to file for bankrupcy after that abomination of a bankrupcy "reform" law went into effect. If they are lucky, they might be debt free before they die. Assuming that they have no more medical problems, of course.

[cyberpj]

3. I keep hearing people say, "just don't pay medical bills" - they can't do anything

unless you put the bills on credit cards.

Any info on that concept?

[Warpy]

6. It's bogus

One way or another, that hospital will get paid. They will take your property, garnish your wages, even put you in jail, but they will be paid.

If you're really indigent, disabled and living in an apartment, taking mass transit everywhere, they'll fight to get you Medicaid and the state to pay your bill.

Forget indigent care. If you've got anything to your name, you don't qualify.

[TechBear_Seattle]

7. Medical companies can and do sue for failure to pay

Medical companies generally have less strict repayment options, but that is changing rapidly as defaults continue to mount. I remember reading that defaults were actually the biggest reason for inflated medical costs, ahead of increasing malpractice insurance costs, so now hospitals, clinics and other medical facilities are turning to the courts in an effort to keep their own costs down.

[Liberal Veteran]

10. NEVER trust medical billing companies! Ever!

I had an incident where my lab work was sent to a lab not covered by my insurance company (which apparently is my own fault for worrying more about the fact that I had just been given an AIDS diagnosis instead of which lab they would be sending my blood to).

By the time I found out that my insurance wasn't going to cover the 300 or 400 dollars that the lab charged, it was a couple of months down the line.

I called them and told them I'd send them all but 50 dollars of the bill that week and the remainder in two weeks when I got paid again. They agreed and said it would be no problem.

I sent them the check for most of the bill which cleared almost instantly and a week later, I got letter from a fucking collection agency for the 50 dollars with 4 days to go until my next payday.

Fucking bastards.

I am a pretty easy-going kind of person, but I think I got hung up on 10 times due to my pure outrage before I finally got someone on the line from the medical billing company that had the power to rescind the collection attempt and let me carry out the payment I had agreed to.

And then to top it all off, the last lady I spoke to said something like, "That never should have gone to collections anyway. You had made more than a good faith attempt at paying the bill and it says right here on the computer that we had agreed there would be no problem with you sending the remaining 50 dollars two weeks after the first payment you made."

I appreciated her candor, but when people have medical problems, the last thing they need is crap like that.

[qwlauren35]

17. Sort of...

if you don't own anything, there's not much they can do.

I've known people to show up in an emergency room with no money and no insurance... and no intention on paying. They can't exactly turn you away...

the concept of treating medical insurance somewhat like auto insurance has some very interesting repercussions... and yet, that's why it can't be done that way. The people who need it the most are the people who would use it the most. If they aren't insured, then someone will end up subsidizing their care.

People think that what drives costs up is greed. I'm not so sure that there may not be other factors at work.

There is a very significant portion of the population who cannot afford to pay what they need in the way of health care. I honestly don't see how this can be addressed without increasing medicare tax. And I think we know that a large number of Americans would oppose this.

[NashVegas]

18. Marketing Has Driven Up Costs in a Huge Way

I moved from a city with 4 or so hospitals in 1994, to another with about 7. That was the first time I ever saw a hospital advertise. Now, they're also competing against specialization clinics that advertise, as well.

There's also the rise of for-profit corporations.

[pop goes the weasel]

27. Depends on the state

In Texas, your estate cannot be attached for failure to pay medical bills, but if you use a credit card you lose that protection. Which is why you should never tell the admission desk in the ER that you have a credit card. Make your payment arrangements through the hospital.

In other states, you don't even have that much protection. You will be hounded into your grave then dug up and hounded some more.

[Sherman A1]

4. I would add...

That more and more bills in general are being paid by credit card... They are just easy to use. Gas Station, Groceries, Phone Bills and anything else I can charge, I do. Sending one payment per month is simply easier for me and I save a lot of stamps and checks. There is a certain level of convenience involved here along with the slippery slope of credit card debt. Credit cards are not evil or dangerous unto themselves, it's in your ability to keep your wits about you and know that, this is real money your are spending and not just some vapor ware that will magically go away.

[MannyGoldstein]

5. Medicare For Everyone

Single-payer universal health care, a.k.a. Medicare for everyone, would save money and produce better outcomes. It has in every industrialized country where it's been implemented.

[Liberal Veteran]

8. Congress should do a preemptive strike on the credit card companies.

And make it a law that any medical expense can only be charged at 0.5% interest rate on a credit card.

That'll take the wind out the sails of those ghouls salivating over how to take advantage of people who are so desperate they have to use a credit card to pay medical bills.

[cyberpj]

22. From the same article - 0% first year then either 9.99% or 15.99% interest.

"Bank of America recently teamed with Aetna and Caremark to offer special cards to the health care companies' members.

The all-purpose cards include health-related rewards, such as points for exercise equipment.

Weinberger said the cards "create an incentive to live healthier lifestyles."

Both have a 0 percent rate for the first year; then cardholders have a choice: a Platinum card, which carries a 9.99 percent annual rate, or the Preferred Card at 15.99 percent."

[Warpy]

9. If you want to know where the next Depression is coming from

just follow the debt.

The inevitable result of fattening the rich and concentrating wealth away from labor is that labor soon has to go into debt to stay alive. The debt load eventually reaches a crisis point, usually fueled by the collapse of a speculative bubble financed by more debt, and disposable income disappears overnight. That collapses the consumer market, 70% of the economy, and in turn causes massive unemployment as demand for goods and services dries up.

The New Dealers understood that. The swarm of locusts we call the Republic rich don't get it at all, and think if we prop up the stock market and have a permanent war based economy, we'll do just fine.

[cyberpj]

23. self delete

[Marie26]

11. Medical CREDIT CARDS?

Eek. That's a fast ticket down the rabbit hole.

[Seldona]

12. Just what those most at risk need.

18% interest on medical bills they cannot afford in the first place. Brilliant.

[LibDemAlways]

13. My husband's company sent home a brochure the

other day touting their new "medical savings accounts" plan. Just squire x amount of dollars away every month and it will be there should you ever need it. What a joke. Who the hell can afford having yet another automatic deduction from their paycheck to slowly build funds into an account that would be wiped out after the first round of tests for some condition.

People are resorting to credit cards to "pay" their medical bills because they don't have the money to pay them up front. It's that simple. And the reason they don't have the money is that premiums are astronomical, co-pays high, and, oh yeah, they have other obligations like keeping a roof over their heads and food on the table.

It's a goddamn shame the self-professed "greatest country on earth" does such a piss poor job of providing basic services - like health care - to its citizens.

[MissB]

20. Dh's company has these, and it isn't such a bad t hing.

But I suppose it depends on how it is set up.

We've always had a medical reimbursement account and excellent insurance through dh's work. This year, because of spiraling costs, they had to offer different choices. We could take a low deductible plan ($600 deductible) with a co-pay or a high deductible ($3k) with a co-pay. Both seemed to suck, but the high deductible plan allowed for free preventative care, and the coverage was much better once you went through the $3k in deductibles.

To offset the high-deductible plan, they dropped the monthly rate. Instead of paying $400 a month for coverage, we'll pay $150 a month. That extra $250 a month that we don't pay is going into a series (laddered) $500 six-month CDs so that we have more of an emergency fund geared specifically towards paying any high deductible that may come along. We were already paying $400 a month for health care coverage last year, so it appears as a bit of a savings.

His company is also dropping in $200 in our medical reimbursement account and $1000 in our medical savings account. The $1k can rollover from year to year and accumulate. Since we're relatively young and healthy, it may be a good option. If not, well, we have $1k of "free" money towards the $3k deductible. We're already used to having a large medical reimbursement account to pay for doctor visit copays and eyeglasses and dental copays and prescriptions, etc. Plus, his company allows people to suck money right out of the medical reimbursement account on January 1st, even if the money isn't all there yet (like last year, when I opted to have lasik surgery in February- I was able to pay that out the reimbursement account, even though the money wouldn't all be there until August or so).

So as an alternative, his company came up with a reasonable offer for healthcare. I'd still much prefer universal health care.

[fed-up]

14. if in Calif please help with one care now dot org-Universal Health Care

http://onecarenow.org/index.html

Universal Health Insurance Campaign:
California's 365 Cities Demand Reform
Quality, Affordable Healthcare is your Right!
The California OneCareNow Campaign is the nation's first-ever statewide grassroots campaign for universal health insurance. Teams in more than 365 California cities are conducting grassroots educational and public awareness "action" events--one event per day, in a different city, for one year--to demand quality, affordable healthcare for all Californians.
Quality, Affordable Healthcare Is Your Right!

[12string]

15. medical credit cards

my fiance just got her dental credit card.she has dental
insurance as she works for the state of washington but it
covers so little that just some basic work requires a 3500.00
co=pay.

[Tyrone Slothrop]

16. Premiums up 73.8%, income up 11.6%

My boss informed me that I did not get my usual annual raise last year as our insurance premiums had gone up so much. (Likewise, our co-pays doubled too!)

As long as the premiums keep jumping up, it's going to be hard (read: impossible) for small businesses to keep income levels at any sort of matching level.

Welcome to fascism...

[bleedingheart]

19. The first medical loans I ever saw were for cosmetic surgery

because of course it is elective (for those who are seeking beauty and not reconstruction...which is generally medically covered).

But I knew that before long...there would be medical credit cards however what is upsetting this is a for profit business that is making money off of people's health problems and that just seems very wrong to me.

[3waygeek]

21. They already exist, after a fashion.

Many Health Savings Accounts (HSAs - the thing * was pushing last year) offer credit/debit cards. I use one to buy Claritin for my allergies -- the account is funded with pre-tax dollars. The card acts like a pre-paid credit card (like the ones for people recovering from bankruptcy); I can charge up to the full balance in my HSA.

[cyberpj]

25. But with HSAs you're using your own pre-tax funds to back the card and

you don't pay interest.

Just curious, if you don't use what you've saved in a year do you lose it?

[Spangle]

26. There are 2 types

One type that one gets if they have a high deductable health play, the money rolls over every year. It's a savings plan. But you can only put in the amount of your deductable. Those who rarely need medical help will save money, until they really do need it. Those who need medical help now... They use up the funds every year and nothing will roll over. With that plan, you can only withdraw as much as you put in, as you put it in. Like a checking account. You pay over draft fees, etc.

The other type is a reimbursment account. It doesn't roll over. It's 'use or loose". The plans I've seen, if you elect to put in $1,200 a year ($100 a month out of your check), The whole amount is avalible for use on the first day of the plan. Even tho you really haven't put in the funds yet.

I've used the second plan alot and love it. Ours will pay our drug store out of the funds. I don't even have to worry if I have enough funds on me for my meds.

We changed to a high deductable insurance this year. So now we have both plans. Now is where it gets screwy for us. Our employer didn't have an option where they put funds in the account for us to use. So our account starts out at $0. So if we need to go to the doctor this month, it will be out of our own pocket. We can reimburse ourselfs the funds back later. We can't use the second plan for medical expenses until we have met our medical deductable. Except for dental and vision expenses. Not even for meds, like before. Boo hoo... Of course, that means the first account should be $0 and nothing left to roll over. And we will have the same "tight" January next year. LOL!

In my book, the high deductable plans are really "Major medical" or "extream medical" plans. It will cover ones butt if someone is hit with a bunch of medical bills in one year. The plans I've seen come with a decent yearly out of pocket limit that will keep a person from paying for ever.

The 'savings account' idea is to save in case one needs it for emergencys. If not, one can use it when they retire to pay for the medical expenses.

[cyberpj]

31. Thanks. You have a great understanding of this. Most people don't tho, AND

I think it's getting absurd that people have to do so much homework and studying to figure out what they should pick from the benefits menu. It's like the confusion and massive details included with the new Medicare plans - and those are especially confusing and difficult for the elderly who most need to understand them.

Sigh....

I guess I'm just tired of all the PLANS!!

Tx.

[cyberpj]

24. Put your tin foil hats on - or just admit that nothing's out of the question now.......

I sometimes think the reason we don't have protests by the masses is the aggressive marketing and use (not to mention profits) of anti-depressants in this country.

I want to yell out: "did you ever stop to think there's a reason you're depressed and angry and you should be doing something about it!!"

Not only are we dumbed down, but we're numbed down.

[pop goes the weasel]

28. dental cards already exist

They are heavily pushed in dental offices. Avoid them if you can! They run some of the shadiest billing practices in the credit industry. We need to make sure our state legislatures don't allow them to spread into doctors' offices.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

29. no job

but if you got no job, then you got no paycheck to garnish, right???

Four years statute of limitations on debts, not paid by credit cards, in TX as said by previous poster.

[Vinca]

30. This article gives the impression it's the uninsured running

up credit card bills. More likely it's people who have paid for expensive insurance that only covers a fraction of medical expenses. Most policies cover about 80% and when a serious illness runs into 6 figures, the 20% left over is significant.