AFL-CIO survey shows healthcare system in crisis
A SURVEY RELEASED this spring by the AFL-CIO finds that an astounding 95 percent of those who responded say that the nation’s healthcare system needs to be completely rebuilt or fundamentally changed. Nearly 27,000 people—including 1,600 AFT members—completed the online survey, and more than 7,000 submitted personal and often painful stories about their own healthcare woes.

Among them was Melissa, an AFT  member from Oregon, who wrote: “I’m currently over $5,000 in debt due to an overnight hospital stay in November  2007. My doctor sent me to the emergency room due to tachycardia, and the resulting tests and observation put me in a deep financial hole. Ironically, my employer of 17 years finally started offering its employees insurance, six weeks after my hospital stay.”

The survey shows that Melissa is far from alone in coping with the hardships of being uninsured.  “Those of us with good healthcare coverage and pensions will not remain as islands of priviledge,” AFT president Edward J. McElroy reminds us.

The survey found that in the past year, 76 percent of people who lack insurance themselves, and 71 percent of people with uninsured children, say someone in their family did not visit a doctor when sick because of cost. Fifty-seven percent of the uninsured and 61 percent of people with uninsured children had to choose between paying for medical care or prescriptions, and other essential needs (such as rent or mortgage and utilities). Even those with health insurance (about three-quarters of those who responded) are deeply concerned about rising costs and declining quality. The AFL-CIO plans to present the results of the survey to candidates for public office at every level, and to increase its mobilization to help ensure that candidates who win in November have a mandate for real healthcare reform.

Scoring your ability to pay medical bills
HOSPITALS HAVE FIGURED OUT a way to determine if their patients will be able to pay the bill after treatment, MSNBC reports. It’s called the MedFICO score. Much like credit scores, MedFICO scores will use payment history information to predict the likelihood that a patient will pay future medical bills. The prospect of MedFICO scores has consumer advocates concerned; they say the score could affect the quality of care patients receive. “This is a bad idea,” Pam Dixon, head of  the World Privacy Forum, a consumer advocacy group, told MSNBC. “Are we going to deny people medical treatment because they have a terrible MedFICO score?” asked Dixon. Stephen Farber, the chair of Healthcare Analytics—the Massachusetts company developing the tool—says no: The score will be used after patients receive care and are discharged. Dixon warned, however, that the impact may not come initially, but that follow-up care could be a problem for patients with low MedFICO scores.