Fiscal Policy Institute Report for BALCONY Shows NY Health Care Costs $7.2 Billion for 2.7 Million Uninsured

NEW YORK, NY (12/05/2007)(readMedia)-- Statement by Bruce Ventimiglia, Co- Chair BALCONY and Chairman Saratoga Capital Management LLC

“You cannot design a system to solve a specific problem until you understand the exact parameters of that problem. I learned that as a businessman. I am the longtime CEO of Saratoga Capital Management LLC, an asset allocation firm based in Garden City, and, more recently, the Co-Chairman of BALCONY, the Business and Labor Coalition of New York. I come to you wearing my BALCONY hat today.

“As always, it seems, in an election year, there has been much talk about reforming health care or completely revamping the current health care delivery and insurance system used by New York State. Such talk worries those already having health insurance, a group that constitutes over 90 per cent of those who vote. They think ‘Will I lose my benefits?’ or ‘How much more will I have to pay to cover the uninsured?’ Such talk also worries the owners of small businesses, who frequently operate on small profit margins and fear their competitiveness will be affected if new employer mandates are created.

“BALCONY recognized that this issue could become a political hot potato. It could stall the laudable progress that BALCONY and our sister health care advocacy groups have been making with Governor Spitzer and the State Legislature. So BALCONY commissioned a study by an independent think tank, the Fiscal Policy Institute (FPI), to address this issue. The Health Care and Social Costs of the Uninsured in New York State is a white paper (available on the BALCONY website, www.balconynewyork.com) that provides answers for this deceptively complicated question.

“The answers are complicated because of the harder-to-quantify social costs associated with the uninsured, as well as the more straightforward total spending burden imposed on health care providers and institutions delivering uncompensated care to the uninsured.

“Everyone agrees that there are around 2.7 million full-year uninsured in New York State, and that this number has stayed about the same over the past two or three years. In addition, there are an additional 1.5 million people uninsured for part of the year.

“To estimate the total spending on health care for the full and part-year uninsured in New York, FPI cited the Urban Institute study use of data from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) in conjunction with the Current Population Survey. The total annual amount spent on health care for the uninsured is estimated at $7.2 billion. This total comprises three components: $2.2 billion in out-of-pocket expenditures, $2.3 billion paid by insurance sources (mainly private insurance and Medicaid) for health care for those who had insurance for part of the year, and $2.7 billion in uncompensated care. (This $2.7 billion estimated for uncompensated care based on the MEPS survey of households is remarkably similar to the $2.8 billion estimate of uncompensated care based on information from providers.) If all New Yorkers were fully insured, the $7.2 billion in expenditures would rise to $11.3 billion.

“These are staggering numbers, to be sure, but it helps to break them down county by county, because only by doing that can we begin to glimpse possible solutions. Over half of the uninsured (1.4 million) live in New York City, and another 300,000 on Long Island in Nassau and Suffolk Counties. The report breaks down the numbers of uninsured by county, and also assigns costs for uncompensated care and an upper-bounded and lower-bounded range for the more amorphous social costs of uninsurance.

“For Nassau County, for example, there are 147,000 uninsured and the costs of uncompensated care delivered to them runs around $149 million annually. Nassau’s estimated social cost of uninsurance ranges from $256 to $512 million. For Suffolk County, there are 166,000 and the cost of uncompensated care is approximately $168 million, while the social costs of the uninsured in Suffolk ranges from $288 to $577 million.

“By comparison, tiny Yates County upstate has only 3,253 uninsured individuals, totaling $3 million in uncompensated care, and a range of $6 to $11 million in social costs.

“We at BALCONY are confident that a close understanding of the demographics surrounding health care access, and an appreciation of the Seven BALCONY Principles for Affordable Health Care – Universality, Affordability, Administrative Simplicity and Transparency, Adequacy , Quality and the Elimination of Disparities - will be of great assistance to those struggling to make health care access a right for every New Yorker.

“There are several key positions in our Principles which BALCONY and I in particular, advocate as simple reforms that could cut costs and streamline the health care system. The first is the adoption of electronic medical records for all New Yorkers; that is, every person and every patient would have their medical history on an easily accessed digital file to enable diagnosis and treatment to conform with medical history. Already, companies such as Microsoft and Google are working on prototype systems to achieve this important goal.

“A second reform is the adoption of a uniform system of health care insurance claims. Currently, many physicians, health care providers, hospitals and others spend countless hours filing out a virtual cornucopia of forms for the many insurance benefit providers who reimburse them for medical services. It is well known that carriers often have different forms for the same medical procedure, making the clerical work and reimbursement a burden on the medical profession. A uniform system of claims would go a long way to a simplification of a system that is unnecessarily complex.

“In conclusion, BALCONY urges the State of New York, Governor Eliot Spitzer, the NYS Departments of Health and Insurance as well as the Senate and Assembly to adhere to the BALCONY principles of Affordable Health Care as they craft the plan to provide coverage for all New Yorkers.”

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The complete report can be found on the BALCONY website here: http://tinyurl.com/3b27wu . Copies can also be obtained by calling or emailing the contact people listed below for BALCONY and the Fiscal Policy Institute.

For Further Information, Contact:

Fiscal Policy Institute - James Parrott: 212.721.5624

BALCONY - Linda Cronin-Gross, LCG Communications: 718.853.5568, linda@lcgcommunications.com; Lou Gordon – BALCONY Coordinator: 212.219.7777

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Posted Wednesday December 05, 2007 at 11:33 am by BALCONY, Business and Labor Coalition of New York