» health care crisis http://aconnecticutlawblog.com Tue, 22 May 2012 13:51:30 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2 Healthcare Crisis Plays Out In Small Claims Courts http://aconnecticutlawblog.com/2009/09/healthcare-crisis-plays-out-in-small-claims-courts/ http://aconnecticutlawblog.com/2009/09/healthcare-crisis-plays-out-in-small-claims-courts/#comments Fri, 04 Sep 2009 13:26:01 +0000 Ryan McKeen http://aconnecticutlawblog.com/?p=1205 Continue reading →]]> This post was originally written in February of 2008. In light of the healthcare debate, I figure the post is worth reposting.

Healthcare. The debate is everywhere right now.

It occurred to me that the last time I was in Small Claims Court that most of the cases on the docket involved defendants who were being sued for unpaid medical bills.

I did a quick search of active small claims cases filed by ECHN (Manchester Memorial Hospital) and Hartford Hospital in Connecticut small claims court.

As of this morning a search for ECHN turned up 1,000 active small claims cases (which is the maximum allowed by a search meaning there are likely more than 1,000 active cases).

A search of active cases for Hartford Hospital returned 514 active cases.

I did not check every case to see if it was a collection matter but if I had to guess the vast majority of the cases were for unpaid medical bills.

I also did not check the regular civil docket which would include cases where the alleged damages (unpaid medical bills) are in excess of $5,000.00.

I’m not sure of the solution but clearly there is a problem.

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