Even as Washington and Wall Street debate the best way to avert an economic disaster, increasing numbers of Americans are struggling with another financial crisis: the growing burden of unpaid medical bills.
Health Care News
Small Payroll, but Big Woes on Insurance
The New York Times - By Kevin Sack
BELLAIRE, Tex. — When the bottom fell out of the automotive market last year, Amberly Allen’s fast-growing direct-mail firm hit a wall in a hurry.
As orders from car dealerships fell by half, Ms. Allen deferred plans to hire more sales representatives. She put off buying the building she now leases in this Houston suburb. And in November, both she and her husband, one of her four employees, stopped drawing salaries.
The Wrong Place To Be Chronically Ill
Editorial - The New York Times
Chronically ill Americans suffer far worse care than their
counterparts in seven other industrial nations, according to a new
study by the Commonwealth Fund, a New York-based foundation that has
pioneered in international comparisons. It is the latest telling
evidence that the dysfunctional American health care system badly needs
reform.
Why Does U.S. Health Care Cost So Much? - Part II: Indefensible Administrative Costs
By Uwe E. Reinhardt, New York Times Economix Blog
In my previous blog post,
I showed that America suffers from “excess spending” in its health care
system. Here I will discuss one factor that drives up that spending:
indefensibly high administrative costs.
Why Does U.S. Health Care Cost So Much?
By Uwe E. Reinhardt, New York Times Economix Blog
The graph below tells a compact story of United States health spending relative to that of other nations.
Health Care Costs Increase Strain, Studies Find
More need government health plans, census says
By Megha Satyanarayana, Detroit Free Press
The number of people who rely on state and federally sponsored health care programs is rising, according to the 2007 Current Population Survey from the U.S. Census Bureau.
Healthcare a luxury in America
By Rob Johnson, The Roanoke Times
In the waiting room of the Borinquen Centre, most of the patients are regulars. This Miami clinic is where everyone who can’t afford health insurance goes.
“In a private clinic, they make you pay $250-350 at the first appointment;” explains the clinic’s director, Paul Velez. Here, the most disadvantaged patients will pay one tenth of that price.
“We often have to wait hours but this is the only place where I can get all of my family treated without it costing too much,” says one woman, sitting in the waiting room with her husband and children. Like many patients, she comes from Little Haïti, the Haitian district of Miami, just a few streets from the centre.
Health care road show visits Wise County
WISE -- Universal health care comes to this coal-mining corner of Southwest Virginia once a year, and 1,200 or so people waited anxiously for it in the pre-dawn chill Friday.