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Politics : Stockman Scott's Political Debate Porch -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Jim Willie CB who wrote (44036)	4/27/2004 9:53:31 PM
From: T L Comiskey	Respond to of 89467

Job Losses in U.S. Cut Hospital Earnings as Unpaid Bills Mount April 26 (Bloomberg) -- Emergency rooms from Atlanta's Grady Memorial Hospital to the Detroit Medical Center are being overwhelmed by a surge in visits from patients who can't pay and lack insurance because they lost their jobs. Uninsured emergency room visits rose 26 percent in March at HCA Inc., the biggest U.S. hospital chain. California-based Tenet Healthcare Corp., the second-largest, and Triad Hospitals Inc. in Texas report the same trend as the number of unemployed has risen to 8.4 million and the uninsured to 44 million. ``We are close to a meltdown,'' said Dr. Arthur Kellermann, 49, who runs the ER at Grady Memorial and also heads Emory University's department of emergency medicine. ``You're going to see a major hospital system go under.'' Federal law requires hospitals to accept anyone in need of emergency care, insured or not. As a result, HCA said two weeks ago it's prepared to write off as much as $694 million in unpaid bills from the first quarter if necessary, about 12 percent of revenue. Triad has raised its provision for bad debt to about 10 percent of revenue, while Tenet is setting aside 11 percent. The loss of about 2.4 million U.S. jobs from the start of 2001 through 2002 left 4.9 million more Americans without health insurance, and U.S. hospitals with $22.3 billion in unpaid bills in 2002. Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry, 60, has made the rising costs part of his campaign in his bid to unseat President George W. Bush. Kerry is promising more federal funding to cover health costs for those who can't pay. ``A large number of people have fallen between the cracks and neither party has really addressed it at this point,'' said Jordan Schreiber, who manages about $800 million at Merrill Lynch & Co. and owns shares of HCA and Triad. ``The economic slowdown has contributed to the increase. Things will improve somewhat with the economy, but it's a continuing problem.''