{"id":19839,"date":"2013-04-28T19:00:39","date_gmt":"2013-04-28T19:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/whisnews21.com\/?p=19839"},"modified":"2013-04-28T19:00:39","modified_gmt":"2013-04-28T19:00:39","slug":"romneycare-benefits-boston-bomb-victims-ironic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/2013\/04\/28\/romneycare-benefits-boston-bomb-victims-ironic\/","title":{"rendered":"Romneycare Benefit’s Boston Bomb Victims, Ironic ?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"703491-boston-marathon-explosions\"<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Boston Bomb Victims To Benefit <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

From ‘Romneycare’\u00a0 Health Reforms<\/span>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

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The victims of the Boston Marathon bombing have endured pain and injury but\u00a0 they may be spared further insult in the form of huge medical bills, thanks to\u00a0 Massachusetts’ unique health care system.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\"romneyreturns\"
It is such a pity people did not trust in you, but then 60% of America do not trust in God either.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Owing to a 2006 health care reform law enacted by then-Gov. Mitt Romney (R),\u00a0 just 4 percent of Massachusetts residents were uninsured in 2011<\/a>,\u00a0 according to census data. And many of those bombing victims who lack health\u00a0 insurance, including those visiting Boston from out of state, may qualify for\u00a0 financial assistance from a “Romneycare” safety-net program.<\/p>\n

“When I was watching the events and hearing from my colleagues what was\u00a0 happening at the hospitals I said, ‘Well, thank God we have near-universal\u00a0 coverage in Massachusetts’ because those people almost certainly would be\u00a0 covered,” said JudyAnn Bigby, who was secretary of the Massachusetts Executive\u00a0 Office of Health and Human Services under Gov. Deval Patrick (D) from 2007 to\u00a0 2012.<\/p>\n

Boston’s emergency services and its hospitals have been praised for the speed\u00a0 and effectiveness of the medical response to the bombing<\/a> last Monday. More than 280 injured<\/a> marathon participants and spectators\u00a0 passed through the doors of Boston hospitals and clinics over the last week, but\u00a0 none have died<\/a> beyond the first three fatalities and just two victims remained in critical condition<\/a> as of Monday.<\/p>\n

But all that medical care costs money. Trauma care, surgery, hospital\u00a0 services, recovery and rehabilitation charges can quickly mount. Compared to\u00a0 other states with higher rates of uninsured people and weaker safety nets, the\u00a0 Massachusetts health care system is built to minimize the likelihood that huge\u00a0 debts will follow major injuries and illnesses.<\/p>\n

Massachusetts enforces an individual mandate that nearly every state resident\u00a0 obtain some form of health coverage, and it also provides subsidized coverage<\/a> via Medicaid or private\u00a0 health insurance to low- and middle-income people who don’t receive health\u00a0 benefits at work. This system served as a model for President Barack Obama’s\u00a0 health care reform law, known as the Affordable Care Act.<\/p>\n

In addition to providing for health insurance coverage, Massachusetts runs a\u00a0 program called Health Safety Net. This benefit allows patients who have no\u00a0 health insurance or inadequate coverage to apply to have the state pay their\u00a0 hospital bills, even if they aren’t residents, Bigby said. Generally, the only\u00a0 people who qualify are those who make up to 400 percent of the federal poverty\u00a0 level, which is $45,690 for a single person this year — but exceptions are made\u00a0 for severe illness and injuries, according to Bigby. The Health Safety Net\u00a0 benefit is largely financed by assessments on hospitals and health insurance\u00a0 companies.<\/p>\n

Federal law requires hospitals to accept and stabilize everyone in need of\u00a0 emergency medical care regardless of their ability to pay. In Massachusetts,\u00a0 however, broader insurance coverage and a safety net program for uninsured\u00a0 people’s hospital bills not only alleviates some worry about high costs, but\u00a0 also diminishes the chances a patient will be sent out of the hospital as soon\u00a0 as they are out of mortal danger, Bigby said.<\/p>\n

“In some of those places, people would be seen and stabilized and hospitals\u00a0 would try to ship them somewhere else, to a public hospital or somewhere where\u00a0 people without insurance generally are sent,” Bigby said.<\/p>\n

\"Heartache
Heartache and sorrow in the USA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Yet, given the extensive nature of some patients’ injuries, including lost\u00a0 limbs, there will be ongoing medical and rehabilitative costs that may not be covered by health insurance or by the Massachusetts\u00a0 safety net program<\/a>. “The breadth of coverage could leave some people with\u00a0 some uncovered expenses given the severity of some of the potential injuries,”\u00a0 Bigby said. The Health Safety Net Program is limited to hospital costs.<\/p>\n

Patients’ costs will vary, Bigby said, depending on the care they receive and\u00a0 the level of coverage their health insurance plans provide<\/a>. In\u00a0 Massachusetts, some less expensive insurance requires patients to cover 20\u00a0 percent of their hospital bills and pay deductibles as high as $5,000, she\u00a0 said.<\/p>\n

That’s one reason why some bombing victims are raising money online<\/a> and why Gov.\u00a0 Patrick and Boston Mayor Tom Menino (D) have backed the creation of the One Boston Fund. The fund will benefit those injured<\/a> in the\u00a0 blasts and the families of the three killed at the marathon<\/a> site and the police officer killed in Cambridge<\/a> Thursday. Massachusetts<\/a> and the federal government<\/a> also have crime victims’ compensation\u00a0 funds available.<\/p>\n

Additionally, hospitals have charity care programs that can waive some\u00a0 charges, said Tim Gens, general counsel for the Burlington-based Massachusetts\u00a0 Hospital Association. “Massachusetts has a very strong and extensive safety\u00a0 net,” Gens said.<\/p>\n

At Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, which treated victims as\u00a0 well as the two bombing suspects, billing questions will wait until a later\u00a0 date, spokesman Jerry Berger wrote in e-mails to The Huffington Post. “We just\u00a0 aren’t focusing on that yet. It’s a question that will be addressed when\u00a0 everyone is discharged,” Berger wrote. “We have been focusing on providing\u00a0 care.”<\/p>\n

The most severely injured bombing victims<\/a> likely will suffer lifelong\u00a0 health problems or disabilities as a result of their injuries, and Massachusetts\u00a0 law guarantees residents of the state will remain insured, said Donald Berwick,\u00a0 a former acting administrator of the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid\u00a0 Services under Obama and a possible 2014 gubernatorial candidate in Massachusetts<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In other states, those would qualify as pre-existing conditions that would\u00a0 enable health insurance companies to refuse future coverage for the victims, he\u00a0 said. That will change when the health insurance market reforms <\/a>under Obama’s health care\u00a0 reform law are enforced next year, Berwick noted.<\/p>\n

“Massachusetts is the only state, until the Affordable Care Act comes into\u00a0 effect, in which they have to issue insurance,” he\u00a0 said.<\/p>\n

Article forwarded to WHISNews21 by Rhonnie Scheuerman<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Boston Bomb Victims To Benefit From ‘Romneycare’\u00a0 Health Reforms\u00a0 The victims of the Boston Marathon bombing have endured pain and injury but\u00a0 they may be spared further insult in the form of huge medical bills, thanks to\u00a0 Massachusetts’ unique health care system. Owing to a 2006 health care reform law enacted by then-Gov. Mitt Romney (R),\u00a0 just 4 percent of Massachusetts residents were uninsured in 2011,\u00a0 according to census data. And many of those bombing victims who lack health\u00a0 insurance, including those visiting Boston from out of state, may qualify<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19379,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19839"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19839"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19839\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19379"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19839"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}