Staggering cost of caring for uninsured patients in Missouri
Barb ShellyAdding to the case in favor of expanding Medicaid limits, the Missouri Hospital Association announced today that in 2011, for the first time, the cost to hospitals of caring for uninsured patients topped $1 billion.
The $1.1 billion tab was 22 percent higher than what hospitals acquired in 2010. Of the 2011 amount, $622.8 million was charity care provided by the association’s 129 participating hospitals. The remaining amount was bad debt.
Hospitals are currently able to recoup some of that amount from the federal and state governments, which pay “disproportionate share” compensation to hospitals which serve high numbers of poor and uninsured patients. But those payments are expected to be phased out under the Affordable Care Act as more people gain insurance either through new state marketplaces or from expanded Medicaid limits.
The hospital association anticipates that Missouri hospitals will lose $3.3 billion in disproportionate share payments through 2020. They will still have to care for uninsured sick people in their emergency rooms, however. Financially, that’s an impossible scenario.
The answer is for the Missouri legislature to raise Medicaid limits to the level called for in the Affordable Care Act, 133 percent of the federal poverty level.
Missouri currently only covers adults who earn up to 19 percent of the poverty level. That’s a salary of just more than $4,000 a year for a family of four. An expansion to 133 percent would put 200,000 to 300,000 Missourians under the Medicaid umbrella. The federal government would pay 100 percent of the cost the first three years and not less than 90 percent after that.
With the ability to see a doctor regularly, fewer people would end up in hospital emergency rooms. Those that do arrive there would be more likely to have insurance.
Gov. Jay Nixon is pushing for the Medicaid expansion and says he will account for it in next year’s budget. Republicans in the legislature are holding out, with some saying they won’t even consider it. If they stick to their guns, they’d better start considering the prospect of hospitals in Missouri shutting down for lack of money to care for uninsured patients.
George Hunsucker
Northland
6 months, 1 week agoyep ms. shelly, we need all these people to move to NY, IL, CA or any other lib state willing to shoulder another burden from the federal government. Note these 3 states are basically bankrupt.
MO is being intelligent in refusing the longterm unfunded offer being propigated by the big zero and his band of Chicago academics and community organizers.
Luckily, the legislature will not allow Nixon to put our state into a longterm hole by expanding Medicaid. Libs, like yourself ms. shelly, of course would.
Phil Cardarella
6 months, 1 week agoI suspect that our GOP/GOTP Legisalture will, in fact, turn down the federal money. The fact that this will pass the burden of caring for the poor further onto the hospitals, forcing some to close and all to pass on the cost to the rest of us? Hey, it is more important for those meatheads to prove their political purity, right?
How about each of the Legislators who votes against the federal money loses his STATE-PAID health insurance for himself and his family. Only fair, right?
Curt A. Hodapp
6 months, 1 week ago“With the ability to see a doctor regularly, fewer people would end up in hospital emergency rooms. Those that do arrive there would be more likely to have insurance.”
Really?do you have proof that support this statement or is it just is it just your high hopes? People are lazy and even if you tell them they need insurance and provided it to them at a cheap price. Many will still not purchase it.
For me? Keep your insurance I am comfortable with not having any and I will not be forced to purchase what I do not.want. I will pay the fine first instead of caving in on my values
Terry Flowers
6 months, 1 week agoWe have to remember that we are all already paying for the healthcare of others…many others. We pay for the healthcare of the elderly, the veterans and the poor. Very few of us have the resources to pay for healthcare…especially a major medical event…without some outside financing source. We pay through our inflated healthcare insurance premiums, inflated provider fees due to losses from the uninsured and discounts the healthcare insurance industry negotiates. In fact the healthcare insurance industry is the largest factor in high healthcare costs. H.R. 676…Expanded and Improved Medicare for All…would reduce our nation’s per capita cost of healthcare and provide the healthcare financing for every American. Curt, if you prefer not to purchase healthcare insurance and have a major medical event, you will add to the burdon of the rest of us unless you are part of the 2% and can afford thousands of dollars in healthcare bills. H.R. 676 would solve our nation’s healthcare challenges…for all of us.