Catherwood LibraryILR School

With America's attention increasingly turning to the acute healthcare coverage crisis facing the nation and its working men and women (see WIT's for Jan. 14 and 20, 2002), a union study scheduled for release this week reveals that those people who are least able to afford the high costs of medical treatment are often charged more than double the amount paid by those with insurance. Data accumulated by the Service Employees International Union's (SEIU's) Chicago-area Hospital Accountability Project, reveals that workers whose employers do not provide health insurance, who do not make enough to pay into expensive plans, or who have lost their employment and with it their coverage, are being forced to pay as much as 250 percent what the insured are charged for medical care---a problem which extends far beyond the Chicago area to millions of workers across America. While some hospitals have cited the risks of non-payment by the uninsured, in defending this double-standard as a necessary measure in the management of "bad debt," the Accountability Project's director Joseph Geevarghese had a much simpler term for the practice: "price gouging of the working poor."