A New Age for the Medically Unisured

And, you are far from alone. Vast numbers of students, part time workers, independent entrepreneurs, breadwinners with or without children working one, two or three minimum wage jobs just to get by skate along day to day hoping they won't get sick. But they do.

So, let's start with the good news. As of mid-March 2007, if you present without medical insurance at any Sutter or Catholic Health Care West Hospital like San Francisco's St. Mary's or St. Francis, or 40 other CHW facilities in California, Arizona, and Nevada, you will no longer be subject to price-gouging as you may have been in the past.

Suppose you or a family member suffers a sudden illness or accident requiring hospital care.

If you are a uninsured family of four whose income exceeds $100,000 a year, instead of bankrupting yourself to meet exorbitant Chargemaster prices, you will now pay the same costs as people covered by commercial or government insurance, like Medicare.

If you are low or middle income with a family of four, and according to Federal poverty level guidelines, you make less than $100,000 a year, CHW and Sutter hospitals must now offer you free care or care at cost. What's more, CHW will provide interest-free loans and extended payment plans.

"It's a new age," said Kelly M. Dermody, Plaintiff's Counsel with Caryn Becker of San Francisco's Embarcadero law firm Liefe, Cabraser, Heimann & Bernstein, LLP. The price-gouging issue is done!"

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