Earlier this month, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) questioned witnesses on medical debt during a Senate Health Education Labor and Pensions Committee hearing.
Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:
https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript
Stay Connected
Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes
More From Forbes: http://forbes.com
Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:
https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript
Stay Connected
Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes
More From Forbes: http://forbes.com
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00Let me begin the round of questioning by mentioning that last week the governor of Illinois signed
00:12legislation into law to cancel up to $1 billion in medical debt with an investment of just
00:18$10 million in state funding.
00:21That sounds like a pretty good deal.
00:22We're talking about one cent on the dollar to cancel debt.
00:26Dr. El-Sayed, is that similar to what you're doing in Michigan?
00:30Why is that an effective way to go forward to take the burden of medical debt off of
00:36the backs of vulnerable people?
00:37Yeah, thank you for the question.
00:39So the ratio of one cent on the dollar is exactly what we're pursuing in Wayne County.
00:44And it demonstrates the fact that though prices have gotten higher, those nominal prices are
00:50somewhat arbitrary.
00:52And the reality is that after non-payment of a medical debt, the value of that debt
00:57falls precipitously.
00:58And so we have a situation where I would argue that it's actually exactly the inverse of
01:04what my esteemed colleague, Dr. Ippolito, shared, which is that we have a situation
01:09right now where hospitals and providers, in effect, will create a certain number and say
01:15that's the price of the care.
01:18And people can't afford it, but they bank on the fact that a lot of people, because
01:21of the kind of beggaring that they get, will try and do so anyway.
01:25How many people do you think you can help by removing their debt for how much money
01:30in Wayne County?
01:31We estimate about 300,000.
01:33For how much?
01:34For about $7 million.
01:35That sounds like a pretty good deal.
01:38Dr. Messack, in America, one out of every four cancer patients either declared bankruptcy
01:47or lost their homes to eviction or foreclosure as a result of medical debt.
01:51Is there any other country in the world where that takes place?
01:56No, not in the rich world.
01:59Countries as rich or close to as rich as the United States do not see this level of catastrophic
02:03health expenditure, not even close.
02:04We outpace the nearest OECD country by more than two times.
02:08So you're right, that that's not something we see.
02:11All right.
02:12And if I am diagnosed with a terrible disease, I worry about that a whole lot.
02:17My family worries about that.
02:19What impact on my health and my well-being does the worry about financial ruin mean to
02:25me?
02:26Thank you, Senator.
02:27As Dr. Chino said, and as I mentioned in my testimony, there are so many consequences
02:31to worrying about health.
02:33And we know that patients who are in financial distress after a diagnosis, who are facing
02:37these medical debts, do not adhere to treatment recommendations.
02:40They're more likely to die.
02:42And this has been proven time and time again, from the RAND study in the 70s to the QJE
02:47study just this year.
02:48So it's a tremendous health consequence.
02:51Ms. Wood and Dr. Chino, you both have dealt with serious, in one case fatal, illness in
02:59the family.
03:02What role were bill collectors playing during this process when you were worried about your
03:05kids and you were worried about your husband, Dr. Chino?
03:08Ms. Wood?
03:09I think it's just the ever-constant threat of someone calling to inquire for something
03:13that we were not able to pay.
03:15Does that happen often?
03:17I would say multiple times a day.
03:19Multiple times a day?
03:20Yeah, I would say oftentimes we were in the NICU visiting our children and we would get
03:24calls from debt collectors asking for payment before the boys were ever discharged from
03:28the hospital.
03:29It caused a tremendous amount of stress on our family to the point that we debated not
03:33answering our phone many times if we were not with the boys because we were worried
03:36if it was the hospital or a debt collector calling.
03:39But we had to answer because, of course, it was the hospital.
03:41So your kid's in the hospital and you're getting multiple calls a day?
03:46Correct.
03:47From bill collectors?
03:48We had two children.
03:49So double the calls.
03:50Dr. Chino, do you want to elaborate on that?
03:53I just want to say how common this is and how heartbreaking it is that I know from my
03:57personal experience but also that our patients are experiencing on a day-to-day basis how
04:02excruciating these calls are, how harassing and threatening the messages are.
04:07I have patients who
04:08Can you elaborate on that a little bit?
04:09Threatening?
04:10What does that mean?
04:11You're dealing with somebody who is very, very ill, right?
04:12That's your main concern.
04:13What does that mean, threatening?
04:16So, you know, saying this is going to affect your credit, your ability to do anything in
04:20the future, we're going to take your home, we're going to take your car, your future
04:25is over.
04:27Basically, I have found that debt collectors will play every dirty trick that they can
04:33to try to get you to give them some money.
04:37And it's just one extra layer of stress that when you're dealing with, you know, for me,
04:42my husband was in the ICU for a month, it's just intolerable.
04:51To say the least.
04:52I mean, so what we're talking about is a wife worried about her husband in the ICU or a
04:58mother worried about her kids struggling for their lives having to field off calls from
05:03debt collectors.
05:04I mean, if that's not obscene, I don't know what is obscene.