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It's no secret that before Obama came along, the US had major healthcare problems. However, it's clear that fixing it is up for debate. so I took 5 major issues in the healthcare industry and put them up against each other. Which one do you think should have been fixed before ObamaCare? Multiple choice is allowed, votes are public.
Cost:
Medical bills prompt more than 60 percent of U.S. bankruptcies - CNN.com
Medical Malpractice:
10 Things You Want To Know About Medical Malpractice - Forbes
Medicaid/Medicare Fraud:
Medicare And Medicaid Fraud Is Costing Taxpayers Billions - Forbes
Denial of Coverage:
Insurers Denied Coverage to 1 in 7 - WSJ.com
Claim Denial:
PolitiFact | TV ad overstates health insurance denials
Cost:
Medical bills prompt more than 60 percent of U.S. bankruptcies - CNN.com
Woolhandler and her colleagues surveyed a random sample of 2,314 people who filed for bankruptcy in early 2007, looked at their court records, and then interviewed more than 1,000 of them.
They concluded that 62.1 percent of the bankruptcies were medically related because the individuals either had more than $5,000 (or 10 percent of their pretax income) in medical bills, mortgaged their home to pay for medical bills, or lost significant income due to an illness. On average, medically bankrupt families had $17,943 in out-of-pocket expenses, including $26,971 for those who lacked insurance and $17,749 who had insurance at some point.
Medical Malpractice:
10 Things You Want To Know About Medical Malpractice - Forbes
Fact: According to the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), medical negligence is the third leading cause of death in the U.S.—right behind heart disease and cancer.
In 2012, over $3 billion was spent in medical malpractice payouts, averaging one payout every 43 minutes.
Medicaid/Medicare Fraud:
Medicare And Medicaid Fraud Is Costing Taxpayers Billions - Forbes
How much Medicare and Medicaid fraud is there? No one knows for sure. In 2010 the Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report claiming to have identified $48 billion in what it termed as “improper payments.” That’s nearly 10 percent of the $500 billion in outlays for that year. However, others, including U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, suggest that there is an estimated $60 to $90 billion in fraud in Medicare and a similar amount for Medicaid. Big money!
Denial of Coverage:
Insurers Denied Coverage to 1 in 7 - WSJ.com
The four largest U.S. for-profit health insurers on average denied policies to one out of every seven applicants based on their prior medical history, according to a congressional investigation released Tuesday.
Claim Denial:
PolitiFact | TV ad overstates health insurance denials
The researchers reported that from 2002 through June 30, 2009, six of the largest insurers operating in California rejected 47.7 million claims for care, or 22 percent of all claims. According to the nurses' group, during the first six months of 2009, PacifiCare denied 39.6 percent of claims; Cigna denied 32.7 percent; HealthNet denied 30 percent; Kaiser Permanente denied 28.3 percent; Blue Cross denied 27.9 percent and Aetna denied 6.4 percent.