HEALTHCARE CAN BE COSTLY

The consequences of such a lapse can be grim. Everyone knows that any hospital procedure is going to be costly. But you may be shocked at just how costly.

Did you know that health care expenditures in the U.S. accounted for more than 17 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), according to a study by the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project?  Worse, although only seven percent of the civilian, non-institutionalized population had an in-patient hospital stay, the costs associated with those stays accounted for 29 percent of all health-care expenses?

That’s a huge number. And it can vary depending on where you are hospitalized in the U.S., because different states have vastly different prices for treatments.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has compiled data on the average hospital charges for the 100 most common diagnosis and treatments for every hospital in the country treating Medicare patients. As of 2012, the top five states with the highest average aggregate rankings (meaning they have the most expensive medical costs) are California, New Jersey, Nevada, Florida and Pennsylvania.

That means if you are uninsured and in a bad accident in California, you may find yourself in an unsurmountable hole if you are uninsured.

MORE PEOPLE ARE NOW INSURED

Of course, no one can predict when an accident will happen, and the trend line on who has insurance shows that more people now have it than ever before.