Medical Monopolies & Medical Bankruptcies
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Happy Monday Advocates
I would like to encourage comments and suggestions from you if you have time. If there is a special topic you’d like to see please let me know. Please use the comment button below. By the way lots of deep breaths help.
FTC Engaged
Thanks to Gary for pointing this out. The Federal Trade Commission is suing a large anesthesiology group for anti trust practices. You can read that as operating as a monopoly and price gouging. Here is the reference article in the Washington Post.
In 2012 U.S. Anesthesia Partners (USAP) first opened in Texas and spread to nine other states growing by acquiring the largest anesthesiology firm in a city and then adding other nearby practices.
The legal action was filed against USAP and its private-equity founder, Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe. The case represents one of the strongest moves by regulators to address complaints that the large doctor practices being built by financial firms are boosting U.S. medical prices.
The FTC charges that USAP was cornering the anesthesiology markets where they are located and then engaging in unlawful agreements to raise prices, raking in tens of millions of extra dollars for these executives at the expense of patients and businesses.
A Washington Post story in June into ASAPs business in Colorado showed that this was exactly how they operated. It is worth noting that USAP has issued more than $1.3 billion in dividends to its shareholders.
We’ve mentioned before that when private equity and medicine meet, it is the patient who suffers.
Medical Bankruptcy
A reader recently asked me if I could find any data connecting medically related bankruptcies and homelessness. Here is what I found.
There are about 650,000 bankruptcies in the US related to MEDICAL DEBT. It is 60% of all the bankruptcies. (Reference)
Medical debt and homelessness are linked. One study in Seattle, WA found that if there was medical debt then homelessness was increased by 2 years. Here is that reference.
Nationwide, about 100 million people have some form of healthcare debt, almost a third of us. Of those, about 1 in 5 said the debts have forced them to change their living situation, including moving in with friends or family, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation Here is that reference.
I want you to keep in mind that all that misery and homelessness goes away with universal healthcare.
The Biden administration announced a major initiative to protect Americans from medical debt on Thursday, outlining plans to develop federal rules barring unpaid medical bills from affecting patients’ credit scores. (Reference Story on NPR)
The regulations, if enacted, would potentially help tens of millions of people who have medical debt on their credit reports, eliminating information that can depress consumers’ scores and make it harder for many to get a job, rent an apartment, or secure a car loan.
New rules would also represent one of the most significant federal actions to tackle medical debt, a problem that burdens about 100 million people, one out of every three of us, and forces legions to take on extra work, give up their homes, and ration food and other essentials, a KFF Health News-NPR investigation found.
“No one in this country should have to go into debt to get the quality health care they need,” said Vice President Kamala Harris, who announced the new moves along with Rohit Chopra, head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, or CFPB. The agency will be charged with developing the new rules.
“These measures will improve the credit scores of millions of Americans so that they will better be able to invest in their future,” Harris said.
Enacting new regulations can be a lengthy process. Administration officials said Thursday that the new rules would be developed next year.
Credit reporting, a threat designed to induce patients to pay their bills, is the most common collection tactic used by hospitals, a KFF Health News analysis has shown. There is growing evidence, for example, that credit scores depressed by medical debt can threaten people’s access to housing and fuel homelessness in many communities.
Many groups have urged the federal government to bar tax-exempt hospitals from selling patient debt or denying medical care to people with past-due bills, practices that remain widespread across the U.S., KFF Health News found.
ACTION
Let’s let the Biden Administration know that this is a step in the right direction, but just a step. Universal healthcare, wipers out medical bankruptcy, and the attendant problem of being forced into the street because you were sick.
You can call or email President Biden and Vice President Harris and let them know. Here is their online comment form, and their phone number is 202-456-1111. Or use Resistbot to send the message below by texting to 50409 SIGN PQKZOA.
Congratulations President Biden and Vice President Harris on starting the process to change the rules regarding reporting medical debt on credit reports. Such punishments for illness are just cruel and I’m glad you are taking action.
Let me point out to you additional steps you can take. You can bar tax-exempt hospitals from selling patient debt or denying medical care to people with past-due bills, they are supposed to operate FOR THE PUBLIC GOOD to get that tax break. More important you can see to it that we have Universal Healthcare like our 35 peer industrialized nations and end medical bankruptcy for good. Do good.
RESOURCES
Healthcare Advocacy (Us)
Website
Our Newsletter resources including reproductive healthcare
Healthcare Advocacy Reading List
Find My Elected Officials
Contact the White House https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/
Contact State and Federal Representatives
https://www.commoncause.org/find-your-representative/addr/
Important Healthcare Resources
League of Women Voters Healthcare Reform Toolkit
Organizations to Contact
National Nurses United Medicare4All
Physicians for a National Health Plan
Reproductive Health
NARAL - Pro Choice America
Charley. NARAL’s abortion resource
Planned Parenthood
Miscarriage and Abortion Hotline has references about where to procure abortion medications. They also assist women in the process of self managed abortion or miscarriage by phone or text and will respond in an hour. Details and hours of operation at their website.
United State of Women Reproductive health page (bottom of the page) has important resources such as medical support, access to Telehealth, prescriptions by mail, and legal support references.
Practice careful communications - The Digital Defense Fund has a number of tips to keep texts, calls, and internet use private. Here is their site.
If you need financial help with an abortion try abortionfunds.org
Alan, this is a great post! Is there any link between medical debt, medical bankruptcy, and living in rural areas? Are there links connecting people being underinsured by their employer at lower income levels? Such figures, if they exist, might be especially interesting to our member of Congress, who advocates for rural working class people.