Privatization in a publicly funded health care system: the U.S. experience

The United States has four decades of experience with the combination of public funding and private health care management and delivery, closely analogous to reforms recently enacted or proposed in many other nations. Extensive research, herein reviewed, shows that for-profit health institutions provide inferior care at inflated prices. The U.S. experience also demonstrates that market mechanisms nurture unscrupulous medical businesses and undermine medical institutions unable or unwilling to tailor care to profitability. The commercialization of care in the United States has driven up costs by diverting money to profits and by fueling a vast increase in management and financial bureaucracy, which now consumes 31 percent of total health spending. The Veterans Health Administration system--a network of government hospitals and clinics--has emerged as the leader in quality improvement and information technology, indicating the potential for public sector excellence and innovation. The poor performance of U.S. health care is directly attributable to reliance on market mechanisms and for-profit firms, and should warn other nations from this path.     

Health Insurance and Mortality in US Adults

Objectives. A 1993 study found a 25% higher risk of death among uninsured compared with privately insured adults. We analyzed the relationship between uninsurance and death with more recent data.Methods. We conducted a survival analysis with data from the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. We analyzed participants aged 17 to 64 years to determine whether uninsurance at the time of interview predicted death.Results. Among all participants, 3.1% (95% confidence interval [CI] = 2.5%, 3.7%) died. The hazard ratio for mortality among the uninsured compared with the insured, with adjustment for age and gender only, was 1.80 (95% CI = 1.44, 2.26). After additional adjustment for race/ethnicity, income, education, self- and physician-rated health status, body mass index, leisure exercise, smoking, and regular alcohol use, the uninsured were more likely to die (hazard ratio = 1.40; 95% CI = 1.06, 1.84) than those with insurance.Conclusions. Uninsurance is associated with mortality. The strength of that association appears similar to that from a study that evaluated data from the mid-1980s, despite changes in medical therapeutics and the demography of the uninsured since that time.The United States stands alone among industrialized nations in not providing health coverage to all of its citizens. Currently, 46 million Americans lack health coverage.¹ Despite repeated attempts to expand health insurance, uninsurance remains commonplace among US adults.Health insurance facilitates access to health care services and helps protect against the high costs of catastrophic illness. Relative to the uninsured, insured Americans are more likely to obtain recommended screening and care for chronic conditions² and are less likely to suffer undiagnosed chronic conditions³ or to receive substandard medical care.⁴Numerous investigators have found an association between uninsurance and death.^5–14 The Institute of Medicine (IOM) estimated that 18 314 Americans aged between 25 and 64 years die annually because of lack of health insurance, comparable to deaths because of diabetes, stroke, or homicide in 2001 among persons aged 25 to 64 years.⁴ The IOM estimate was largely based on a single study by Franks et al.⁵ However, these data are now more than 20 years old; both medical therapeutics and the demography of the uninsured have changed in the interim.We analyzed data from the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES III). NHANES III collected data on a representative sample of Americans, with vital status follow-up through 2000. Our objective was to evaluate the relationship between uninsurance and death.     

Consumer Directed Healthcare: Except for the Healthy and Wealthy It’s Unwise

Many politicians and business leaders are advocating high deductible health insurance plans linked with health savings accounts—so-called consumer-directed healthcare. These policies penalize the sick, discourage needed care (especially primary and preventive care), and direct tax subsidies towards the wealthiest Americans. They offer little hope of slowing the growth of health care costs and add further bureaucratic costs and complexity to our health care financing system.     

Medical Bankruptcy in the United States, 2007: Results of a National Study

Background

Our 2001 study in 5 states found that medical problems contributed to at least 46.2% of all bankruptcies. Since then, health costs and the numbers of un- and underinsured have increased, and bankruptcy laws have tightened.

Methods

We surveyed a random national sample of 2314 bankruptcy filers in 2007, abstracted their court records, and interviewed 1032 of them. We designated bankruptcies as “medical” based on debtors' stated reasons for filing, income loss due to illness, and the magnitude of their medical debts.

Results

Using a conservative definition, 62.1% of all bankruptcies in 2007 were medical; 92% of these medical debtors had medical debts over $5000, or 10% of pretax family income. The rest met criteria for medical bankruptcy because they had lost significant income due to illness or mortgaged a home to pay medical bills. Most medical debtors were well educated, owned homes, and had middle-class occupations. Three quarters had health insurance. Using identical definitions in 2001 and 2007, the share of bankruptcies attributable to medical problems rose by 49.6%. In logistic regression analysis controlling for demographic factors, the odds that a bankruptcy had a medical cause was 2.38-fold higher in 2007 than in 2001.

Conclusions

Illness and medical bills contribute to a large and increasing share of US bankruptcies.     

U.S. Physicians’ Views on Financing Options to Expand Health Insurance Coverage: A National Survey

BACKGROUND  Physician opinion can influence the prospects for health care reform, yet there are few recent data on physician views on reform proposals or access to medical care in the United States. OBJECTIVE  To assess physician views on financing options for expanding health care coverage and on access to health care. DESIGN AND PARTICIPANTS  Nationally representative mail survey conducted between March 2007 and October 2007 of U.S. physicians engaged in direct patient care. MEASUREMENTS  Rated support for reform options including financial incentives to induce individuals to purchase health insurance and single-payer national health insurance; rated views of several dimensions of access to care. MAIN RESULTS  1,675 of 3,300 physicians responded (50.8%). Only 9% of physicians preferred the current employer-based financing system. Forty-nine percent favored either tax incentives or penalties to encourage the purchase of medical insurance, and 42% preferred a government-run, taxpayer-financed single-payer national health insurance program. The majority of respondents believed that all Americans should receive needed medical care regardless of ability to pay (89%); 33% believed that the uninsured currently have access to needed care. Nearly one fifth of respondents (19.3%) believed that even the insured lack access to needed care. Views about access were independently associated with support for single-payer national health insurance. CONCLUSIONS  The vast majority of physicians surveyed supported a change in the health care financing system. While a plurality support the use of financial incentives, a substantial proportion support single payer national health insurance. These findings challenge the perception that fundamental restructuring of the U.S. health care financing system receives little acceptance by physicians.