Last night, I watched part of the debate between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.
As the candidates spent the first 17 minutes of the debate discussing healthcare insurance, 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.