Opinion: Crushing medical debt is turning Americans against their doctors (via latimesopinion )
For Emily Boller, it was a $5,000 hospital bill for a simple case of pink eye that took four years to pay off. For Mary Curley, it was the threatening collection letters from a lab that arrived more than two years later, just as her husband lost his job and the family was fighting to save their home.
Reporting on medical debt over the past two years, I’ve spent hundreds of hours on the telephone, in the living rooms and at the kitchen tables of patients like Boller, Curley and Day. They are among theMany of my conversations with patients have revealed a deep and disturbing disillusionment with our healthcare system.Op-Ed: The debt crisis that sick Americans can’t avoid
They’re tired of shocking medical bills they didn’t expect and can’t afford. And they’re disgusted by the collection notices, the threatening phone calls and appointments they can’t get because they owe money.‘Now we have nothing.’ Soaring medical debt causes gut-wrenching sacrifices for patients Many caring people who work in healthcare understand this. I’ve met countless compassionate physicians, nurses and others who see firsthand the toll that debt is taking on their patients.Three U.S. agencies are looking into whether medical credit cards can harm consumers with features such as exorbitant deferred interest fees.
If nothing else, this should be a flashing red light: the simmering resentment of growing numbers of patients who feel victimized by this system. And as the political turmoil of recent years shows, public anger and disillusionment can produce unpredictable, even dangerous results.
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