Comments on: A Full-Scale Assault on Medical Debt, Part 2

By: Tony Quart

Tony Quart — Wed, 11 Mar 2020 10:57:38 +0000

Thanks for sharing this information, Barry. It’s a new knowledge for me especially. I never deal with any debts, and from what I’ve read on media, a lot of people have suffered from these debt collection practices after they fall behind their bills. What makes it worse is that there are also some bad collection agencies out there which might take advantage of the consumers’ situation.

By: Bob Hertz

Bob Hertz — Tue, 10 Mar 2020 16:57:59 +0000

I may have some numbers wrong here, Barry, but I do not think that federal funding of the air ambulance industry is impossible.
There are about 1,500 equipped helicopters, which cost about $6 million each to equip. That means $7.5 billion to amortize the entire cost, one time. Replacements will be needed of course, but not all at once.

There were about 500,000 flights taken last year. Assume $800 per hour and two hours per flight. That totals $750 million each year.

This would not require very much in new taxes.

By: Barry Carol

Barry Carol — Tue, 10 Mar 2020 00:54:04 +0000

A lot of good thoughts here, Bob.

I would summarize as follows: (1) If there is no meeting of the minds on price in advance of service, there can not be an enforceable contract. (2) There needs to be special rules that apply to services that must be delivered under emergency conditions that limit how much can be charged. I would peg the upper limit at between 125% of Medicare and the lowest in network rate paid by an insurer that the provider accepts. (3) Safety net hospitals that serve mostly patients on Medicare, Medicaid and the uninsured need to be explicitly subsidized by county and state taxpayers in order to cover their operating costs. (4) The geniuses that set hospital list prices should look in the mirror and ask themselves how they would like being on the receiving end of those unconscionable bills. (5) Government provided reinsurance is a good idea if we determine that taxpayers can afford it. (6) Eliminating the 400% of federal poverty level income ceiling to qualify for a subsidy to buy an ACA exchange plan must be eliminated. That should be the easiest item for congress to pass. (7) Air ambulances are tricky to finance because they are inherently expensive to operate. We can’t afford to just have a lot of these sitting around waiting for someone to need them so we need to provide reinsurance to help cover the bills instead, again, if taxpayers can afford to do it.