The faces of the uninsured

We often talk about the uninsured in big numbers – 46 million in the country lacking health coverage, up nearly 10 million in the past eight years.

The huge numbers can make us numb to the individual suffering.  Some, including a key Republican health policy guru, have even said that being uninsured isn’t much of a problem, since people get treated anyway. Actually, while hospitals are legally required to offer emergency care, you still get billed for the services at the hospital’s sky high emergency room rate (not the typical insurance company’s discounted rate). For many of us these charges can take years to pay off. Moreover, the uninsured are not guaranteed check-ups, follow-ups, lab tests, visits to specialists, or medication.

Two recent works of reporting look at the uninsured one excruciating case at a time.

“Critical Condition,” a documentary on the Public Broadcasting System, followed four cases.  One is Joe Stornaiuolo of New York.  As described in the blog “The Healthcare Economist,”, “Stornaiuolo was a doorman for 15 years who got sick, and because of his illness lost his job.  Because he lost his job, he lost his health insurance.  Because he lost his health insurance, he could not pay for the medical care he needs.  Mr. Stornaiuolo’s chronic liver disease could be managed with a regimen of prescription drugs.  Since Mr. Stornaiuolo can’t afford these drugs, however, his sickness spirals out of control eventually leading to hospitalization, long term nursing home stay, and his eventual demise.”

You can see the whole documentary, or a two-minute trailer, at the documentary’s web site.

The Philadelphia Inquirer is running a series of articles about people such as Marty Grassia, 36, who owns a barber shop in Mantua, N.J.  He has Crohn’s disease, a chronic inflammation of the bowel, and he can’t find an insurance company who will sell him a policy he can afford.  He had to spend a month in the hospital, running up $40,000 in medical bills in the past year, wiping out his family’s savings and leaving him $20,000 in debt. He has to pay $400 a month in credit card interest. “That’s a lot of haircuts,” he told the newspaper.