Student Health Insurance Brain Surgery

Higher health costs hitting workers

Premiums for employer-sponsored health insurance continued to escalate this year even as the share of workers getting less-generous coverage reached a new high, according to survey data released Tuesday.

In 2011, for the first time, half of workers at small companies with individual policies faced annual deductibles of $1,000 or more. In 2006, that figure was 16 percent. At large firms, the share has grown from 6 percent to 22 percent over the same five years.

At the same time, the survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that premiums for family plans rose 9 percent in 2011, after several years of slower annual growth. A similar recent survey by the consulting firm Mercer found that yearly premium increases have been hovering around the 6 percent mark and will grow by slightly less in 2012.

Both sources point to the same fundamental long-term shift: Faced with continually climbing premiums, a record share of employers have moved to plans that require workers to pay more out of pocket.

“Without any real national discussion or debate, there’s a quiet revolution going on in what we call health insurance in this country,” said Drew Altman, president of the Kaiser foundation, which conducted the annual survey of employers in conjunction with the Health Research and Educational Trust. “Health insurance is becoming less and less comprehensive. . . . And we expect that trend to continue.”

Employers seem to be turning to cost-shifting as an alternative to dropping coverage outright. During the first half of the decade, the share of companies offering health insurance shrank from 68 percent to 60 percent, and the figure for very small companies dropped from 58 percent to 48 percent. But since about 2005, that decline has leveled off.

Premiums paid directly by workers have galloped ahead of wage increases and inflation – rising 131 percent between 2001 and 2011 for family plans. Employer costs for those plans have gone up 113 percent over the same period, as some have asked their workers to take on a higher proportion of premium costs.

The 5 Worst Hospital Blunders - Affordable Health Insurance

It can be a scary experience to have surgery because so many things can go wrong. The doctors even acknowledge that when they hand patients release forms before they go under that state that they are cognizant of the complications associated with the surgery, but these patients don’t consider that the doctors could complete the wrong surgery entirely! Here are some of the worst surgery blunders.

1. Unnecessary Brain Surgery

John Tunney, of Birmingham, United Kingdom, had a surgery that unnecessarily left him with brain damage. Tunney, 63, consented to surgery to have a biopsy of a tumor in his brain. The doctors failed to follow up on test results that showed that the biopsy was unnecessary. The blood tests determined that Tunney had prolactinoma, which requires only medication to control. During Tunney’s surgery, the doctor removed some of his normal brain tissue and his brain hemorrhaged. Tunney suffered neurological injuries, is now partially blind, and he requires full-time care because of this hospital blunder.

2. Organ Transplant Gone Wrong

Jésica Santillán, a seventeen year old girl who came to America from Mexico to receive treatment for a serious heart condition, died after receiving incompatible heart and lung transplants. This hospital blunder occurred when the doctors failed to check the girl’s blood type against the donated organs that would soon be rejected by her body. The type A organs did not match her type O blood. The girl received a second set of organs that did match her blood type, but these organs led to kidney failure and caused her brain to swell, resulting in her death.

3. 5 Instruments Left in 5 Patients

Doctors at one hospital in the United States are responsible for leaving surgical instruments in five surgery patients in a five year period. Two of the patients were left with one 13-inch long metal retractor in each of them following abdominal surgery and the removal of a cancerous tumor. Three other patients were left with a cardiothoracic retractor, a cardiac retractor, and a clamp used during the surgeries. This hospital has tried to avoid this hospital blunder in the future by requiring all tools used during an operation to be counted, and sometimes the surgeons require x-rays following the surgeries to double check.

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