The Cost of Care for Colorado’s Victims

The Cost of Care for Colorado’s Victims
By Wendell Potter-ex-health insurance senior executive who saw the light.

One of the reasons Americans seem so willing to tolerate the fact that 50 million of us are uninsured and almost 30 million more of us are underinsured is that most of us who have coverage assume we are OK. That nothing truly catastrophic will happen to us, and that, even if it did, our insurance policies will pay our bills and keep us whole.

Who would think that a decision to go see a movie on a Friday night could change our lives—and the lives of our families—forever? That we or a loved one, even with what we believed was decent coverage, might become a victim of violence that could leave us not only disabled for life but also potentially bankrupt and homeless?

That random act of violence in Aurora, Colorado earlier this month could have happened anywhere in America, of course—or in any other country, for that matter—but among the world’s developed nations, we live in the only one where the families of some of the injured would have to face begging for money to pay the doctors and hospitals and keep the sheriff and his foreclosure papers at bay. Talk about American exceptionalism. This is one area where, sadly, we truly are unique.

News reports informed us last week that three of the five hospitals where the victims were taken have said they will absorb most, if not all, of the cost of their care if they don’t have insurance. But who will pay for the care they’ll need after they’re discharged? And who will pay the medical bills of those who were unlucky enough to be taken to a hospital that decides not to be so generous? And what about those who have policies with such limited benefits or high deductibles they might actually wind up in worse shape than those who are uninsured? Having any type of insurance, even if it’s essentially worthless, can disqualify a patient from charity care.

Twelve people were killed and 58 wounded in that shooting at the Century Aurora 16 theater complex on July 20. While some have been released, others are still fighting for their lives in hospitals. And many of them will likely be fighting to stay afloat financially after they’re discharged. According to the Colorado Trust, a philanthropic advocacy organization, one in three Coloradans are either uninsured or underinsured.
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Insurers are not putting it that way, of course. Instead, their lobbyists are telling lawmakers on Capitol Hill they should get rid of the parts of the law that would ban inadequate coverage because, unless they don’t, insurance will become “less affordable” for many people, especially young people who are the target market for mini-meds.

I’d be willing to bet that some of the young people who went to see a midnight movie in Aurora, Colorado, a couple of Friday nights ago were paying good money for inadequate coverage. For policies that insurers dearly want to keep selling but that will be of little if any help to those shooting victims as the bills start rolling in and the creditors start calling.

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