How does the uninsured population increase the cost of healthcare?

[cooi]

When an uninsured gets involved in an accident and enters the emergency room, how does this event increase the cost of healthcare?

[tommie frazier]

when they don't pay for the emergency care, and then the rate charged those who can pay (via insurance or otherwise) is increased to cover that. so, instead of paying $1, those who can pay pay $1/(1-% unpayable). that's a guess.

[JMO]

Those who go to the emergency room - not from an accident, but because they have no insurance - could have been treated more appropriately through a scheduled office visit.

Also, people without insurance neglect problems until they become very expensive to fix.

These folks raise the total cost of health care, too.

[FormLetter]

I think the idea that "going to the ER is more expensive than an office visit" is largely a symptom of accounting that results from the tax treatment of charity care, a large portion of which is delivered through the ER.

Look around an ER when you are there next, and compare it to a physicians office in that same hospital. What makes the ER more expensive?

[TooOldForThis]

I was listening to a radio talk show here in Austin, and one of the callers had recently visited an emergency room. In chatting with the staff, they informed him that only about 40% of the people who use ER services pay for those services (through insurance or other means).

While this may not be a fully credible source of information I certainly don't believe it out of line to suggest that ER services are more than double what they should be (especially after having paid for a recent visit for my daughter, where my co-pay was more than twenty times that of an office visit for the same treatment).

[FormLetter]

Don't make the mistake of thinking that the copay you pay has anything to do with the cost behind whatever service you just had done.

[Atropellador]

You really don't think there's positive correlation between copay and allowed amount? Or if by "cost", you mean the cost to the provider, then another correlation between that and allowed amount.

[FormLetter]

Sure, there is a positive correlation. AllowedAmount(ER) > AllowedAmount(PCP OV), and Copay(ER)>=Copay(PCP OV), but if you just look at ER services ER1, ER2, etc, then the correlation would be zero, b/c Copay(ERx)=Copay(ERy)

[TooOldForThis]

Originally Posted by FormLetter

Don't make the mistake of thinking that the copay you pay has anything to do with the cost behind whatever service you just had done.

I stated that for the equivalent treatment in a doctor's office, my copay, not to mention the base cost charged, was substantially more through the ER. I recognize that there is an additional layer of cost to maintain an ER 24/7, but that due to the large % of people who end up not paying their share, those of us who do are charged their portion.

[Joey Doyle]

So its kind of like shoplifting. Someone steals something from the store and doesn't pay for it and that cost is passed along to the rest of us.

I imagine, the governement should make everything in stores free next to the lower the prices in stores. We should reward people for stealing from the ER and give them free health insurance.