Here we are, about eight months into a pandemic that has killed over 220,000 Americans, and there’s a fair amount of evidence to suggest that the government is still offering more support to the individuals and companies who control the biomedical-industrial complex than they are to the nation’s financially and medically vulnerable. The Sacklers will likely stay billionaires, despite pushing a drug that has crippled thousands of families. Recently, Congress shot down a bipartisan bill that was supposed to protect Americans from surprise out-of-network bills in the case of a hospital visit because of, say, an acute case of COVID-19.[6] As I learned in February, almost 40% of all visits to emergency rooms are classified as “out-of-network” by health insurance companies, which drastically increases the bill that one has to pay. Moreover, 27% of in-network hospital visits still result in an out-of-network bill.[7] This means that even people with health insurance are being bankrupted by medical expenses. As soon as the bipartisan bill passed out of committee, the private equity firms that make money from these sorts of charges blitzed Republicans like Senator John Cornyn of Texas with ads to muscle him into keeping surprise billing alive and well. Perhaps not surprisingly, Texas is one of the states where these surprise bills are most common.[8] Although there is some state legislation in Texas now that could help patients avoid these costs of several hundred to several thousand dollars, much of the rest of the country has no such protection.[9]

In the midst of a pandemic, with healthcare providers and members of Congress influenced by rapacious corporations, one would think we could come together to acknowledge our shared goals of curbing the exploitation and staying alive. Sadly, when private equity firms charge surprise fees at local hospitals, they call it “individual freedom,” and we fail to see that there is nothing free about any of this.[10]

Notes

[1] Meryl Kornfield et al., “Purdue Pharma Agrees to Plead Guilty to Federal Criminal Charges in Settlement over Opioid Crisis,” Washington Post, October 21, 2020, https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2020/10/21/purdue-pharma-charges/.

[2] Brian Mann, “Purdue Pharma Reaches $8B Opioid Deal With Justice Department Over OxyContin Sales,” NPR, October 21, 2020, https://www.npr.org/2020/10/21/926126877/purdue-pharma-reaches-8b-opioid-deal-with-justice-department-over-oxycontin-sale.

[3] Daniel Fisher, “Fee-Fight Emerges in Purdue Pharma Bankruptcy over Paying Plaintiffs Firms,” Legal Newsline, November 13, 2019, https://legalnewsline.com/stories/520068650-fee-fight-emerges-in-purdue-pharma-bankruptcy-over-paying-plaintiffs-firms.

[4] Josh Kovner, “Connecticut and Other States Opposing Settlement with Purdue Pharma Say Company Has Failed to Act to Protect Patients as OxyContin Users Continue to Die,” Hartford Courant, December 10, 2019, sec. Connecticut, https://www.courant.com/news/connecticut/hc-news-purdue-pharma-oxycontin-stamford-20191210-q4753hqydfevdmg7wlvupu46r4-story.html.

[5] Sissi Cao, “Critics Rage as Purdue Pharma Settlement Won’t Send Sacklers to Jail,” Observer (blog), October 21, 2020, https://observer.com/2020/10/purdue-pharmaceutical-settlement-no-jail-time-sacklers-outrage/.

[6] “Alexander: Senate Health Committee Votes 20 to 3 for Bipartisan Bill to Reduce Health Care Costs,” The U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor & Pensions, June 26, 2019, https://www.help.senate.gov/chair/newsroom/press/alexander-senate-health-committee-votes-20-to-3-for-bipartisan-bill-to-reduce-health-care-costs.

[7] Avik Roy, “How To End The Scourge Of Surprise Medical Bills In The Emergency Room,” Forbes, March 12, 2019, https://www.forbes.com/sites/theapothecary/2019/03/12/how-to-end-the-scourge-of-surprise-medical-bills-in-the-emergency-room/; Avik Roy, “House Democrats’ Capitulation on Surprise Billing Proves They’ll Never Pass ‘Medicare for All,’” Forbes, February 19, 2020, https://www.forbes.com/sites/theapothecary/2020/02/19/house-democrats-capitulation-on-surprise-billing-proves-theyll-never-pass-medicare-for-all/; Eric C. Sun et al., “Assessment of Out-of-Network Billing for Privately Insured Patients Receiving Care in In-Network Hospitals,” JAMA Internal Medicine 179, no. 11 (November 1, 2019): 1543, https://doi.org/10.1001/jamainternmed.2019.3451.

[8] Paul McLeod, “Here’s How Private Equity Firms Targeted Republican Sen. John Cornyn With Dark Money To Preserve Surprise Medical Billing,” BuzzFeed News, October 19, 2020, https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/paulmcleod/john-cornyn-surprise-medical-billing-ads.

[9] Jack O’Brien, “Texas Governor Signs Surprise Billing Legislation,” HealthLeaders, June 17, 2019, https://www.healthleadersmedia.com/finance/texas-governor-signs-surprise-billing-legislation.

[10] Charles P. Pierce, “Sometimes, Freedom’s Just Another Word for Not Giving a Damn,” Esquire, October 22, 2020, https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a34453401/rural-missouri-covid-outbreak-hospital-beds-masks/.