Our Dirty Little Healthcare Secret

Shhhh, come closer; I have a secret to tell…

Another federal judge has declared the individual mandate under the Affordable Care Act — more commonly known as healthcare reform — to be unconstitutional. The score is tied with two judges saying the individual mandate is constitutional and two saying it is unconstitutional. We are headed to a higher court.

If you have been living safely under a rock for the last couple of years, allow me to break the news. 2014 is the roll out date that every man, woman and child will be required to carry health insurance or suffer consequences under current law. The entire concept of heath care reform has caused quite a stir. It would appear that there are a whole bunch of folks that don’t like the idea of being told they have to pony up and buy a health insurance policy whether they think that they need it or not. Others that do carry health insurance, feel dead certain that the “Affordable Care Act” is just another government liberal conspiracy to pry more money out of their pocket to pay for lazy poor people and illegal immigrants!

Well the whole hoodah makes me giggle. Every person that has ever been involved in healthcare billing and recovery knows this dirty little secret…YOU HAVE ALWAYS PAID FOR THE UNINSURED AND UNDERINSURED. There I said it…out loud.

Uncompensated care is a huge gap! Yep, every lost dollar from some fool playing Russian roulette with his health, or person that can’t get health insurance, or can’t afford health insurance, is coming out of your pocket right now. Not 2014…now! You are paying big bucks because that emergency room ain’t cheap and God help us all if they are admitted into the hospital with some advanced illness; something that could possibly have been nipped in the bud at a doctor’s office months or years earlier.

Where do people think doctors and hospitals get the funds to cover the money not collected? DRG’s and Managed Care in the 1980′s put a halt to unlimited billing hikes and forced greater efficiency and financial reform to all healthcare billing and collection procedures. Nevertheless, HUGE losses are absorbed by every person that pays his health bill out of his pocket, or by insurance premium. Same with all bad debt in any market. Somebody has to pick up the slack or the whole system goes under.

I live in Georgia; we tend to be a conservative bunch. If I even allude that requiring we all carry basic health insurance coverage might be a good idea, people have been known to turn red in the face and leave the room, muffled grunts of socialism and socialized medicine wafting behind them. For the life of me, I can’t figure out how each of us paying for our own and Socialism belong in the same breath. Not government…us! That’s a distinction that has been glossed over in the healthcare reform “debate.”

A couple of my more far right friends have burned me in effigy. Not much point in telling them nobody asked their permission and have been swiping their money since their first paycheck. It is that transparency thing again. Just out of meanness, maybe I should tell them there are a couple of illegal immigrants in the emergency room right now running up their tab.

So come on, help me out here. What am I missing? Aside from the teensy issue of constitutionality, why wouldn’t we want everybody to have to carry their own financial weight and take responsibility for their health? Obama Care?…or is it Pay Your Fair Share Care?

Now how we pull it off and who pays for that? Well…that would be blog Part 2.

Looking forward to your responses and ideas…all of them. You don’t have to sign your real name if you change your public name on this site, so blog on and spitball your best thoughts. Who knows, maybe we can teach Congress something useful. Until then…

This blog is part of The Healthcare Issue on insideARM.

About Susann Bouchillon

Susann’s latest venture is “The Professional Collector,” LLC; an industry strategic development, consulting and human capital development firm. Susann is a veteran in the collection industry and has served in roles ranging from collector to CEO of large national and international agencies.

Susann has over twenty years experience in the successful strategic development of receivable operations, new market identification and deployment. Her seminars and work-shops have trained thousands of collectors to produce in the top five percent of performance and recovery. Ethically, profitably and joyfully.

Susann is a frequent speaker for the industry and has served as Board Member and Chairperson for numerous professional organizations including; but not limited to, NCHELP, FTA, HFMA and The Card Collection conferences. Susann further is professed as a part-time philosopher and full time pain in the backside. She is honored by her addition to this forum and looks forward to your comments…all of them. She can be reached personally at SBouchillon@professionalcollector.net

“Tell me, and I will forget. Show me, and I may remember. Involve me, and I will understand.” Confucius around 450 BC