HUMAN HEALTH
Ouch: Study reveals financial pain after hospitalization
Serious medical problems reduce earnings, hurt employment, and increase debt
“The sobering truth is that even people who have health insurance don’t have anywhere close to full insurance. Not [only] for the reasons that we’re used to thinking about, [such as] cost-sharing and high deductibles, but because health insurance doesn’t insure the economic consequences of poor health.”
—Amy Finkelstein, MIT Professor of Economics
Being hospitalized is tough enough strictly as a health matter. But now a study co-authored by an MIT professor reveals its painful financial impact as well: On aggregate, hospitalization and the health problems that cause it lead to a 20 percent drop in earnings and an 11 percent drop in employment for adults between ages 50 and 59, among other negative effects.
Moreover, job troubles are merely one of the financial costs that follow hospital stays. As the study shows, adults who have health problems leading to hospitalization have worse subsequent access to credit — as well as larger unpaid medical bills and more out-of-pocket medical spending.
And while medical insurance does temper some of these outcomes, the long-term financial hurt of a medical event serious enough to cause hospitalization is significant even for the insured.
“The sobering truth is that even people who have health insurance don’t have anywhere close to full insurance,” says Amy Finkelstein, an economist at MIT who helped lead the study. “Not [only] for the reasons that we’re used to thinking about, [such as] cost-sharing and high deductibles, but because health insurance doesn’t insure the economic consequences of poor health.”
Read the full story at MIT News
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