IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Florida's Uninsured Crisis is Acute and Worsening

IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 2, 2008

1.65 Million Uninsured Patients are Treated in Hospital Emergency Departments, Adding to an 11.4% Increase in Uninsured Costs in 2006 According to New Report by the Florida Hospital Association

Tallahassee, FL – Florida’s hospitals treated 1.65 million uninsured patients in already overcrowded emergency departments (EDs) in 2006, according to the most recent Databrief by the Florida Hospital Association (FHA).  The study also saw an 11.4 percent increase in the costs for treating Florida’s uninsured. 

The report, Databrief:  Uninsured and the Impact on Florida's Hospitals, highlights the increasing number of uninsured Floridians and the impact on hospital EDs, inpatient care, and the amount of costs hospitals are incurring in taking care of the uninsured.  The report showed that one-in-four patients seeking care in the hospital ED in 2006 had no health insurance coverage and, from that population, more than 150,000 were admitted for additional services. 

“The data clearly show that the uninsured challenges in Florida have reached a crisis in our state,” said Wayne NeSmith, President of FHA.  Due to the increasing number of uninsured, hospital uncompensated care costs have grown 73 percent since 2000.  In 2006, Florida’s hospitals incurred $2.35 billion in uncompensated care costs.  Because of the failure of Medicare and Medicaid to cover costs, privately insured patients have felt the brunt of cost increases, resulting in approximately $3,127 in additional costs added to each hospital stay due to the uninsured.

“Both hospitals and insured patients cannot continue to shoulder the growing costs of the uninsured,” said NeSmith.  “With 45 percent of hospitals losing money on operations in 2006, this crisis is quickly coming to a neighborhood near you,” added NeSmith.  According to the report, those not admitted to the hospital were treated for conditions that, if caught early, could have been treated in a physician's office or a clinic.  These include stomach pain, minor skin inflammations, sore throats, and urinary tract, respiratory and ear infections.

Almost eight percent of all patients admitted to the hospital did not have health insurance.  Of these 222,000 patients, two-thirds were first seen in the ED.  The report also found the most common conditions for uninsured patients requiring hospital stays were cardiac related, gastrointestinal, deliveries, and psychiatric.  A copy of the report can be found at: http://www.fha.org/newsroom/Databrief-Uninsured-2000-2006-050208.pdf or by clicking [HERE] to download.

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