Why Health Care Reform Can’t Wait

March 2010

Our newest health reform report – Why Health Care Reform Can’t Wait – shows the consequences of health reform inaction by Congress. The consequences of inaction are severe and substantial for many rural people.

Too much of the discussion since the U.S. Senate passed their version of health reform in December 2009 has focused on process and politics. Lost is the fact that this is about individuals, families and businesses and their health and economic futures.

As we have said often in the past year, rural people and rural communities have much to gain from health care reform. And, as it turns out, much to lose if reform is not enacted.

The consequences of inaction are severe and substantial for many rural people. Allowing the status quo to continue:

Nearly one-in-three people living in rural areas without a population center of 2,500 or more will be uninsured by 2019.
By 2019, the amount of uncompensated care – the cost of medical services to the uninsured – will increase by nearly or more than double. This will cost the average insured rural household over $1,200 annually and place the rural health care delivery system at further economic risk.
Over the next decade, total health care costs – premiums and out-of-pocket costs – will nearly double.

Since significantly more rural people purchase health insurance in the individual market, since rural people pay more for insurance and deductibles, and since more rural people pay the full freight of their total health care costs, left unchecked this cost expansion will exact a severe economic price on many rural people and families.

All of the unique rural challenges we have highlighted in our series of health care reform reports will only get worse with inaction. The reform bills adopted by the U.S. House and U.S. Senate, however, do begin to address many of these challenges.

More people will have health insurance coverage. Under the Senate bill the rural-urban uninsured rates will flip, so that fewer rural people are uninsured than are urban residents.
Coverage matters, especially for rural people who have higher rates of chronic diseases and conditions and receive fewer preventive services. Chronic conditions which are relatively easy to treat turn lethal over time without the proper treatment that diagnosis and treatment that health insurance can provide.
Health insurance is made more affordable, particularly for those in the non-group and individual insurance markets, a larger segment of the rural population. We estimate that the typical rural family will be exposed to about $16,000 per year less for total health care costs under the Senate bill. Small businesses – which dominate the rural economy and workforce – would be provided extensive, permanent tax credits to make affordable health insurance coverage available to employees.

If Congress fails to finish the job of health care reform, rural people, families and businesses will be stuck with a bad and worsening status quo. Higher costs, a less insured and sicker population, and an increasingly fragile delivery system are what we in rural America have to look forward to if nothing is done.

For more information: Contact Jon Bailey, Research & Analysis Program Director, at jonb@cfra.org or 402.687.2103 x 1013.

Comments

Health Care Reform

Thu, 03/11/2010 - 14:15 — Pete (not verified)

You are correct in stating that health care needs to be reformed. However, there are several levels where this can be done. It DOES NOT require that the goverment become the overseer of the health care system. Each time that the goverment has become involved it has shown it's inability to meet the standards of care met by independent(non govermental) providers. One only needs to look at the Veteran's Administration Health Care System, Medicaid or Medicare programs to come this realization. Also, the goverment with it's programs denies 6 million medical claims a year. This is the most denials of ANY insurer in the country. A secret just starting to surface. Why do individuals with Medicaid end up being seen in the emergency room. We are told it is because private providers will not see them. Shame on those greedy providers. The truth is the goverment used to pay me $7.80 for a visit when the hospital was reimbursed $78.00 for the same visit. I am not talking just complex visits. Simply rechecks, complex visits, physicals were all reimbursed at the that level. When asked why, I was told that hospitals are teaching centers and therefore have more unnecessary test and procedures done than in private practice. So I ask is the goverment encouraging cost effiecent health care? What is needed is the promotion of the idea that individuals are educated consumers. It should be a consumer driven service. Listen to your friends complain about their provider(s). Then complete the following test: Ask them if they had taken their car to the shop to be repaired, how many times would they take it back if the repair was not completed in a satisfactory fashion. I would bet you it is no more than twice. How did I come to this conclusion? I ask patients this vey question when I hear them complain about their health care! I take it one step further by asking them which is more important, their car or their body. I do not see anything in the President's Health Care agenda that promotes this consumer driven response. And PLEASE DO NOT TELL ME that I must put that program into law to see how wonderful it will be!(What a slam to every American's intelligence!!). What should we do? First, allow patients to have a say about which providers they can see(be that a phyisican, physician's assistant, nurse practitioner,Chiropractor,reflexologist or alternative healer). Secondly, allow us to put aside monies in reserve for health care needs. Along with this, is the other side of responsibility. You have a choice to eat and drink what you want. No one should take that away. Smoke and chew as well. However, we all know the potential consequences! So, if you make those choices you should have to pay for the care that is required when those bad choices catch up with you. Thirdly, tort reform is a sadly needed reform. We need to take the lead from the state of Mississippi. Finally, WE DO NOT NEED TO STRAP THIS ON THE BACKS OF THE HARD WORKING PEOPLE OF AMERICA. We need rural ingenuinity and INDEPENDENCE!