Uninsured Americans Get Hit With Biggest Hospital Bills

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-03-11/uninsured-americans-get-hit-with-biggest-hospital-bills.html

By the time Astra Augustus left Virtua Memorial Hospital in New Jersey after the last of four surgeries, she’d run up about $255,000 in bills.

At first, Augustus said, she thought she was lucky. Virtua gave her a charity discount, to $30,530. Then she got statements from the doctors who treated her in the hospital, adding $18,000. “I didn’t know who to pay first,” Augustus said.

Virtua sued last month after she fell behind in her $400-a- month installment plan. While the nonprofit hospital had been generous, she said, the debt is still overwhelming for someone with a monthly income of $2,200.

Hospitals’ fast-rising sticker prices are adding to the financial burdens of the 49 million Americans without insurance, more than 20 million of whom won’t be covered under President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act.