Sick and Uninsured
November 21st, 2008
KFDX-TV
Each year in this country… billions of dollars in medical costs go uncollected because of uninsured patients. Some choose not to pay for insurance… other’s can’t afford it. But either way… someone has to pay for it. Keaton Fox explores the problem and its possible solutions in tonight’s special target three report… “Sick and Uninsured.”
Memorial Stadium.
Packed to the brim, capacity is said to be 17-thousand people.
And even if the stadium were full of people… you’d need nearly another 10-thousand seats to fit the amount of uninsured people in Wichita County alone.
And if you travel just a little bit around Texoma… that number grows… in fact.. Wichita County… with 20% uninsured has the lowest amount of people uninsured in the 22-county area.
Archer… Cotton and Tillman Counties stand at 25% uninsured… Haskell… Knox and Foard county stand at 30% uninsured… and further south and west in Throckmorton County… nearly 34% are uninsured.
Each year across the nation… 56 billion dollars in uncollected medical care is passed off to whoever CAN pay… and it’s getting worse every year.
Here in Wichita Falls… United Regional spent 23-million dollars in charity care in 2007… and according to the hospital… is on pace to do that again this year.
“The hospital does not receive much in the way of county funding in that sort of thing,” said Nancy Townley, Senior Vice President of Operations at United Regional. “It is our responsibility that we bear.”
With so many people uninsured and the costs skyrocketing… some national organizations are turning up the heat highlighting what they call a monumental problem… especially in a year of a presidential election.
“What if you had to go to work, no matter how hurt or sick you were,” one commerical begins. “That’s the reality for millions of Americans who are just one accident or one illness away from financial ruin.”
But is it as bad as they’re making it out to be? One study done by the University of Minnesota School of Public Health suggests that many people who don’t pay for health insurance… in many cases… pay on average 150 dollars a month on other discretionary spending items… like cell phones and satellite and cable television.
State Representative David Farabee sees the problem from a unique perspective… not only is he a state representative… but also an insurance agent who sells medical insurance. As an agent and a representative, he says he understands the problem.
“Our goal is to see that everone has a funding source for health care, or health insurance,” said State Representative David Farabee. “Whether they purchase it privately, through the invidual insurance agent or if the indivudal agent refers them to a quality service, such as CHIP.”
But aside from the differences in our state and national governments over what should be done… people are still getting sick… needing treatment and winding up in emergency rooms, not able to pay for care, or winding up doing nothing… which according to the Institute of Medicine… makes uninsured patients 25% more likely to die… than their insured counterparts.
That’s where places like the Community Healthcare Center come in. The low-cost clinic provides care to those who otherwise couldn’t afford it…
Community Relations Coordinator Brett Moyer says that in a 1-year span… they see over 14-thousand patiens… patients that have no where else to go.
“People are struggling with health care decisions,” Moyer said. “Are they going to get a certain prescription for their child or are they going to take them in to see the pediatrician and hopefully we can help alleviate some of those very difficult decisions.”
So, how do you solve the problem?
“There are resources available to people and really, from a total health perspective it’s much better to get care on an ongoing, continued basis in those arenas, then wait until they’re really critical and have to rely on the emergency room,” said Townley.
“We can get it done,” Farabee says. “But it doesn’t mean that everyone is going to call it the perfect system. Yes, I do believe that the state can participate along with local communities and the federal government to provide access to healthcare.”
And with the problem big enough to fill this stadium… it’s not going away anytime soon.