Suing COVID Victims to Pay Medical Bills

If there ever were a treatment for a disease that the government should pay for, it would have to be COVID-19. With a few familiar statistics cited later, the pandemic may not have started through inept leadership, but it sure reached these monumental and horrific numbers primarily due to missteps, misdirection and missed opportunities by the President himself. For those who credit Donald Trump as the savior of the nation by supporting and accelerating the development of an effective vaccine, one needs to be reminded of his presidential pattern of causing a problem – like the breakdown of trade relations with China or the Iran’s restarting its nuclear enrichment program by withdrawing from the containment treaty – and then declaring he is the only one able to solve the problem. But he seldom did.

Statistically, the evidence of our monumental government incompetence is undeniable. We are still 4% of the earth’s population, and we still have 25% of global COVID infections and 20% of global COVID deaths, the nation with the worst and the most! As some countries are getting control of the virus, even as a more contagious strain is growing, we are just getting worse very fast. As Trump continues to say the bad numbers are exaggerated fake news, his own most senior medical advisors state unequivocally that the terrible numbers are accurate. Mask and safe distancing are still viewed by many as evidence of liberal leanings and disloyalty to Trump. To others, despite the body bags, it remains a hoax.

Major states and cities have used up their ICU and even ordinary bed capacity, the bad numbers are accelerating, and the promised deployment of the vaccine is way, way behind schedule (getting somewhere are 12% of what was promised by this time). Even the most sparsely populated states – like North and South Dakota – are watching the numbers totally tank their hospital capacity. 

There still is no federal plan to get the vaccines into the arms of those who need them. Trump has pretty much shrugged his shoulders and left implementation to the states. His COVID task force has not met in well over a month. Even those in the federal government charged with getting the vaccine to states where it can be deployed admit they have failed. Many states have insufficient funding to deploy the vaccine, not enough people or venues to administer the vaccines and/or little or no actual preparation has to how to reach their own residents. It’s a bigger problem where, in many in rural communities, with small groups separated by wide distances, getting temperature sensitive vaccine is very difficult.

So many of the infections and deaths are linked to federal and state misfeasance, justice would dictate that since the governments (most the fed) caused so much of this, the fed should pay for it. But that’s not exactly what is happening. This story, in New York, is being repeated across the entire United States, at a time when jobs and income are still severely threatened. “When the coronavirus began spreading through New York, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo ordered state-run hospitals to stop suing patients over unpaid medical bills, and almost all of the major private hospitals in the state voluntarily followed suit by suspending their claims.

“But one chain of hospitals has plowed ahead with thousands of lawsuits: Northwell Health, which is the state’s largest health system and is run by one of Mr. Cuomo’s closest allies… The nonprofit Northwell sued more than 2,500 patients last year, records show, a flood of litigation even as the pandemic has led to widespread job losses and economic uncertainty.

“The Northwell lawsuits each sought an average of $1,700 in unpaid bills, plus large interest payments. They hit teachers, construction workers, grocery store employees and others, including some who had lost work in the pandemic or gotten sick themselves…

“Across the country, medical debt lawsuits have grown increasingly common in recent years, as health care costs have risen and insurance companies have shifted more of the burden onto patients through larger deductibles and co-payments. The cases are rarely contested in court and usually lead to default judgments, allowing hospitals to garnish wages and freeze accounts to extract money, sometimes without the patient’s knowledge.

“Northwell has not been alone in pursuing debt through the courts during the pandemic. About 50 hospitals in New York have sued a total of 5,000 patients since March, according to a search of filings in courts around the state. Most are small and located upstate.

“Northwell stands out because of the sheer number of its lawsuits — and because of its connections to Mr. Cuomo. The other major New York City hospital systems, including NewYork-Presbyterian and NYU Langone Health, have largely suspended lawsuits during the pandemic. It is unclear when they might begin suing again.” Brian Rosenthal for the New York Times, January 6th. As I said, this story is taking place all across the United States. It just might be the best evidence in support of the obvious necessity of universal healthcare … once and for all.

I’m Peter Dekom, and our entire political system needs a serious shake up to make that those responsible for massive calamity – environment, medical or economic – bear the cost of their irresponsibility.