People with multiple sclerosis (MS) are well aware of how expensive healthcare can be.
Now it appears that a former U.S. surgeon general has been made aware of this fact, too.
Jerome Adams, MD, MPH, who served in the post from 2017 to 2021, recently spoke out publicly about a bill he received for an unexpected trip to the emergency department in an Arizona hospital that had him stunned.
Dr. Adams first tweeted about his experience, then wrote a piece for MedPage Today about dealing with the bill, as well as his opinion on some of the causes and fixes, including requiring medical providers to give an estimate of costs upfront.
High-Deductible Plans Can Lead to Skipping Care
Adams wrote that his initial bill of $10,000 was negotiated down by his insurance company to $4,800, and because of his high-deductible health plan, that entire amount was owed by himself.
A variety of studies have shown that while high-deductible plans have less expensive premium payments, many people may reduce or delay important treatments due to the higher out-of-pocket costs for that very needed attention.
It is worth noting that as many as 60 percent of employer-provided health plans now fall into the HDHP category in some states, according to HealthPayer Intelligence.
Although most of our ongoing treatment and testing while living a life with MS can be predicted — as opposed to the emergency care that Adams received — it doesn’t take the sting out of a $2,500 copay (or coinsurance) charge for an MRI. Or, if an MRI scan is ordered too soon after our previous one for the insurance providers’ taste, we may be told to expect a charge of $10,000 or more.
For most of us, the answer is simply to forgo such expensive tests. But it’s not like they’re ordered just willy-nilly; there is a reason our medical teams need to see these scans and their results. And we’ll not even go down the path of the costs of MS disease-modifying drugs!
The Financial Stresses of MS Are Many
There are plenty of stresses when it comes to financial issues and multiple sclerosis.
There are, of course, a number of other costs associated with living with MS. We covered some of them in the The Unspeakable Bits “Money Matters” webcast last year. And there are societal costs to multiple sclerosis as well.
For example, a 2018 survey reported that for the total Irish MS population of 9,000, the total societal costs of MS amounted to 429 million euros per year. And these figures are for a nation with significantly lower medical costs and an MS population of less than 1 percent of that of the United States.
Think about that for a moment.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: MS is a damned expensive disease! That two-thirds of American bankruptcy filings can be attributed to medical expenses, according to CNBC, is a stark reminder that it’s not just MS that’s expensive.
Wishing you and your family the best of health.
Cheers,
Trevis
