The high cost of healthcare has reached crisis proportions in the United States, putting millions of Americans in debt or into bankruptcy. But a report from the nonprofit Patient Advocate Foundation (PAF) found the vast majority of chronically ill patients with medical debt are insured.
Ninety-three percent of patients whose cases PAF handled for arbitration and mediation were insured through plans, but were still unable to obtain physician-prescribed healthcare, reflecting "an alarming trend of medical debt crisis issues in the nation’s healthcare system," the organization said.
Nearly eighty percent of PAF patients are cancer patients. The remaining twenty percent have chronic diseases including diabetes, hepatitis, asthma and osteoporosis.
"We continue to see thousands of patients and family members struggle with rejected insurance claims, citing denials based on pre-existing conditions," said Nancy Davenport-Ennis, PAF’s founder and president.
Davenport-Ennis said the PAF’s 2008 report – called the Patient Data Analysis Report (PDAF) – shows a dramatic increase in job loss and unemployment, as well as a shifting of cost burdens onto patients through accelerated co-payments.
"These challenges, in combination with caps on services, pharmaceutical products and medical devices and reduced annual benefit caps, pose serious risks for patients that can lead to life-or-death delays in treatment," she said.
Last year, PAF received in excess of 9.5 million contacts from patients, family members and care professionals requesting information and assistance. Of those, PAF’s professional senior patient navigators successfully managed 48,369 cases for patients that required direct, sustained mediation and arbitration services, the organization said.
Globally, more than sixty percent of all patients who contacted PAF in 2008 reported debt crisis issues as their primary concern.
The nonprofit advocacy group said its annual PDAR provides information on healthcare and insurance trends that can serve as a reference for healthcare policymakers and other stakeholders as they work to address the healthcare crisis.
