health insurance Uninsured drive up hospital costs | Health Care ...

Most people these days only think about co insurance when they think about health insurance benefits. Most people can handle the cost of a doctor visit or prescription drug out of their pocket without insurance. If you have a lower deductible of 500 dollars then after you have paid 500 dollars for medical services, the insurance company will start to pay. Some people get medical insurance plans that do not have co payments at all. This strategy can help them save money with either short term health insurance plans or HSA plans that are good insurance, but they cover everything subject to the deductible.

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The number of uninsured hospital admissions in Hamilton County more than doubled between 2004 and 2008, leaving local hospitals with barely three in 10 patients who have private insurance to pay for their care, according to a new report on health in the Chattanooga region.

In Hamilton County, hospital charity care losses totaled nearly $91 million in 2008, compared to $34 million in 2004.

The annual Ochs report focuses on health in the six-county metro region including Hamilton, Marion and Sequatchie counties in Tennessee, and Catoosa, Dade and Walker counties in Georgia.

The 2010 report provides a sobering overview of local health statistics, from high smoking and obesity rates, to an age-adjusted death rate that exceeds the national average, and one of the state?s highest infant mortality rates, in Hamilton County.

A breakdown of who is paying for hospital patients? care shows patients? heavy reliance on government-funded health insurance.

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Across the six-county metro region, 16.3 percent of people were enrolled in the state?s Medicaid program. One in four people in Sequatchie County get their health care through TennCare.

Today TennCare only pays 64 percent of a hospitals? costs to provide care, he said.

In Hamilton County, half of people ages 18 to 34 were obese or overweight, compared to 74 percent of people 55 to 64. Sixty-three percent of people with a high school education or less were overweight, compared with 60 percent of college graduates.

Racial disparities persisted in the report, as deaths from diabetes were 2.5 times higher among blacks than whites in Hamilton County, and heart disease-related deaths were 61 percent higher among blacks.

In 2008, 45.4 percent of Hamilton County births were to single mothers, compared with 39 percent in 2001.

Source: http://www.asonc.org/health-insurance-uninsured-drive-up-hospital-costs

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