Questions remain about health care law

    The health care bill that was signed into law Tuesday by President Barack Obama will have many repercussions for local residents. What those repercussions are is still unknown by many of them. Washington County Hospital CEO Don Patterson said that the affect the bill will have on the hospital is up in the air.

    ?It?s hard to predict what the bill will do in the long term,? said Patterson. ?In the short term, I don?t think it will hurt, and it may help a little.?

    Patterson said that he has more questions than answers at this point in time.

    ?What affect will this have on insurance companies? Will they reduce the benefits they provide to the hospitals? What kind of procedures will be subsidized?? wondered Patterson.

    There are a few parts of the bill that Patterson agrees with. In six months, insurance companies will not be able to deny children coverage based on pre-existing conditions. By 2014, that provision of the bill will apply to the entire population. Patterson said that kind of insurance reform was a good idea.

    Patterson remarked that he is skeptical of government involvement in the industry because of what he sees as inadequacies in recent health care legislation. Patterson pointed to COBRA continuation health coverage, which is a government program that allows an individual to continue paying group rates for insurance after they have been laid off from work or have retired.

    ?Employers had to offer insurance for 18 months after the employee left, but the insurance was so expensive that the employee couldn?t afford it,? said Patterson. ?The government tried to continue the benefits, but it was not successful, and that law is still on the books.?

    The hospital has to deal with patients who can?t pay their bills all the time, said Patterson. The hospital?s gross revenue is $40 million. Patterson said that bad debt ? debt from people who simply don?t pay their bills ? amounts to $1.5 million per year. He said that debt from people who can?t afford to pay their bills comes to $300,000 per year.

    The way the hospital absorbs those losses is by charging its paying customers more. The health care bill expands coverage to 32 million Americans who are currently uninsured. Patterson speculated that if more people have insurance, it may reduce the costs that those paying customers incur because they don?t have to pick up the bad debt.

    At the same time, Patterson said that medical costs will go up as the demand for medical care rises, and expanding health care coverage will increase that demand.

         ?If you have insurance, you?ll probably get that x-ray or some other test or procedure that you wouldn?t have gotten without insurance,? he said.

          Patterson said that over 92 percent of Iowans have health insurance, which is more than most states. He said Iowa has one of the best quality and least expensive health care systems in the country, and that it is ?well ahead of the curve.?

For the full story, see the March 23 edition of The Washington Evening Journal