| How much, if anything, have you heard about the new insurance marketplace? | Total Public | Insured | Uninsured |
|---|---|---|---|
| A lot | 8% | 10% | 4% |
| Some | 14% | 15% | 8% |
| Only a little | 34% | 33% | 32% |
| Nothing at all | 45% | 42% | 55% |
Source: Kaiser Family Foundation Health Tracking Poll.
In fact, in the same Kaiser Health poll, when people were asked how much they’d heard about the health exchange being set up in their state, 55% of the uninsured reported hearing “nothing at all” with another 32% responding “only a little.” The uninsured citizen is one of the backbones of Obamacare’s success, and insurers are counting on their membership to drive their growth.
In addition, the nation’s largest hospital operators, HCA Holdings Inc (NYSE:HCA) and Tenet Healthcare Corp (NYSE:THC) are counting on Obamacare to reduce the number of uninsured patients that it treats. Each year, these hospitals lose millions of dollars to doubtful accounts of patients that have received care but are unable to pay their bill. For HCA, that figure amounted to nearly $3.8 billion, or 10% of its total revenue, in 2012. Tenet Healthcare Corp (NYSE:THC)’s doubtful account provision was slightly lower at $785 million, or 8% of its total 2012 revenue.
The only way to curb the skepticism of the uninsured and ensure they are easily integrated into the new system is through educating these people. Unfortunately, the CMS is waiting until the last possible minute to educate the public (including the uninsured) on how to obtain health insurance and utilize the health exchanges to their advantage. My concern would be that if we’ve gone three years since the implementation of the PPACA and 42% of citizens aren’t aware it’s even a law and 87% of the uninsured have heard nothing or little about the progress of their states’ health exchange, then how does the CMS expect all of this to come together in just a matter of a few weeks?
Wait and see
As always, we’re just going to have to wait and see how things play out. If the Kaiser Health Tracking poll is an accurate reflection of sentiment, then uninsured citizens would certainly prefer to be insured if they had the choice and consider having health insurance important. However, very few have had their health care cost fears allayed by the passing of the PPACA and it appears that the CMS is going to wait until much closer to the October 1 launch of the health exchanges before it begins it information blitz to the public about how the exchanges work and who they’ll benefit.
Simply put, if the uninsured fail to get this message, there will be a big hole in Obamacare for health-benefits providers that will be missing out on new members and hospitals that likely won’t see a sizable decline in doubtful provisions.
The article Will the Uninsured Undermine the Implementation of Obamacare? originally appeared on Fool.com.
Fool contributor Sean Williams has no material interest in any companies mentioned in this article. You can follow him on CAPS under the screen name TMFUltraLong, track every pick he makes under the screen name TrackUltraLong, and check him out on Twitter, where he goes by the handle @TMFUltraLong.The Motley Fool owns shares of, and recommends, WellPoint.
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