title: Transfer of financial risk and alternative financing solutions.
abstract: The high cost of health care in the United States has created a number of alarming economic and social problems. It has contributed to a greater number of underinsured and uninsured individuals living in the United States, and forced people to either ration or not purchase the care they need. Accumulated medical debt is grossly disproportionate to the US median AGI, and accounted for at least 25 percent of all personal bankruptcies. For patients, a guaranteed loan program specifically for medical procedures and treatments with below market interest rates would help alleviate bankruptcies related to medical debt by lowering payments and extending the loan maturities. A guaranteed loan program would also improve the debt charge-off rate for medical providers that carry patient receivables and reduce the risk of their balance sheets. This might hold or reduce the rate at which health care inflation grows. The health care loan program could model the current student loan programs and produce significant economic and societal benefits.
authors.affiliation: School of Business, Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, IL, USA.
authors.forename: Jeffrey C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Levitt
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D016361:Bankruptcy; D005260:Female; D017048:Health Care Costs; D006801:Humans; D019458:Insurance Coverage; D007348:Insurance, Health; D008297:Male; D017057:Medically Uninsured; D008875:Middle Aged; D012306:Risk; D020414:Risk Sharing, Financial / Q000379:methods*; D014146:Training Support; D014481:United States