Save This Page
When Janet Fredrick got breast cancer in 1998, she never thought she would face bankruptcy because of medical bills: She had insurance.
But her illness dragged out, then her income plunged when she went on disability. By 2005, her co-payments for treatment, including surgery, medications, doctor visits and hospital care, totaled about $8,000.
Such co-payments and deductibles, along with difficult-to-understand policies and complex hospital billing issues, are among the main reasons even people such as Fredrick who have health insurance can face devastating financial costs, says a report out today from The Access Project, an advocacy group that researches medical debt.
Health insurance policies with monthly costs of $122 to more than $800 were approved Thursday by the board overseeing Massachusetts' new law requiring everyone in the state to carry insurance.
The lowest premiums will be paid by young adults, ages 19 to 26; the highest, by those over 55. The least costly premium for those in the middle is about $175 a month. The state aims to cover all uninsured, with subsidies for those below 300% of the federal poverty level, which is about $30,000 for an individual.
As the first state in the nation to require individuals to buy insurance, Massachusetts' plan is being closely watched.
"Everyone is watching, because the perception is that if Massachusetts fails to implement this, then it gives other people less confidence that it can be done," says economist Len Nichols at the New America Foundation, a Washington think tank.
The premiums are higher than some advocates say is affordable, especially when deductibles and co-payments are included.
Forty-seven million Americans are without health insurance, dependent on the emergency room, or getting no care at all. And here we go again with a complicated plan going nowhere.
