Health Care & The "Ownership Society"

Hospitals get hostile with the uninsured...Congress finds those without coverage pay much more

By Chip Reid
Correspondent
NBC News
Updated: 7:41 p.m. ET Nov. 29, 2004

After her husband died last year, Maggie Loncar was left with $13,000 in unpaid hospital bills and no health insurance. Loncar, a Wal-Mart cashier making about $9 an hour, says she had nothing left after supporting a daughter in college and another at home.

"I went to them and I said, ‘Can I work out payments?’" says Loncar. "I have no insurance, you know. I said, can I can work out some payment through the hospital?’ and they said no."

The hospital, Christ Advocate Medical Center outside Chicago, repeatedly demanded payment.
"(They) harassed me at work, calling me at work. Collectors calling all hours of the day and night at my home and at my work," says Loncar.

Finally, the hospital sued her and won the right to take a portion of her paycheck.

See link for the rest of the story...

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How about those Healthcare Savings Accounts? If you don't have the money for insurance and your company doesn't help you get it, just where are you going to get money to put into an HSA? This is what an "Ownership Society" looks like for those who can't afford to own. And just think, there are 45 million others just like her. Nice huh?

Please tell me how tort reform and HSA's will increase basic access for those like the person above? How will it create more doctors? How will it make drugs and equipment cheaper?

Are we really trying to create a society of have's and have-not's?