Insurance companies In Michigan have slashed catastrophic care coverage

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Insurance companies In Michigan have slashed² catastrophic care coverage³

Transcript⁴

A new law allows insurance companies to pay caregiver agencies about half of what they used to get, and many are going broke. That means thousands are losing the care that they rely on to survive.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

For more than 40 years, the state of Michigan had a unique system of high-quality lifetime care for people with the most serious injuries from car crashes. Now new auto⁵ insurance changes are dismantling⁶ that system.

Michigan Radio's Tracy Samilton reports this is causing real problems for thousands of accident survivors⁷.

TRACY SAMILTON, BYLINE⁸: Here's what happens to most severely⁹ injured car accident patients in the U.S. At the hospital, survivors with spinal¹⁰ cord and traumatic brain injuries get their initial surgeries and treatment.

But Susan Connors, who heads the Brain Injury Association of America, says it's often downhill from there.

SUSAN CONNORS: They're going to send you - you know, my favorite phrase is discharge to the couch, but it could be any kind of facility that will take you where you will not get rehabilitation¹¹. You will not get cognitive¹² stimulation¹³. You'll get three meals a day and a change of sheets. And that happens all over the country.

SAMILTON: For the last four decades, Michigan was different. Its unique no-fault insurance law assessed a surcharge - about $15 to $20 a month - to cover high-quality lifetime care for such survivors. It paid for one-on-one nursing care in your home if you needed it, ongoing¹⁴ rehabilitation, transportation to therapies and doctor's visits. But three years ago, Democratic and Republican leaders joined together to scrap¹⁵ that law. They replaced it with a hastily drafted one they said would make car insurance in Michigan affordable¹⁶ but which also slash¹ payments nearly in half for the agencies caring for crash survivors. Now many of those agencies are going broke.

CONNORS: What they have done is essentially¹⁷ gone to the bottom of the barrel.

SAMILTON: Providers say, for many of their patients, this can be a tragic¹⁸ turn.

UNIDENTIFIED OPERATOR: Of your emergency?

SHARA CURRY¹⁹: Hi, my name is Shara Curry. And I'm calling to report that Kelley Miller²⁰ - she's a vent-dependent quadriplegic. She is without care.

SAMILTON: Kelley Miller is going to the hospital today. She's not sick. Her home care agency just can't afford to take care of her anymore.

CURRY: She cannot take one breath on her own. And there's no...

UNIDENTIFIED OPERATOR: OK, so she needs an ambulance. Is that your question?

CURRY: She needs an ambulance.

SAMILTON: Miller's accident in 2011 left her paralyzed from the shoulders down, but she could live at home with a nurse and aide 24/7. She lived with her husband. She was part of the community, babysitting her grandkids and going on outings.

KELLEY MILLER: My granddaughter's birthday party is today at Skateland. And it's something I looked forward to. (Crying) But I won't be there.

SAMILTON: Nurse Shara Curry has been with Miller for 10 years. She watches the EMTs hoist²¹ her onto a stretcher. She's crying. She says Miller's ventilator stops working on a regular basis. So if the hospital forces her to go to a nursing home...

CURRY: We save her life at least twice a month. In a nursing home, she can't move. She can't press a call light. How would she let them know that she was in trouble?

SAMILTON: Miller's husband Bud is also distraught as the ambulance takes his wife away.

BUD MILLER: It's just killing²² us, how the laws can this do what they want to destroy people.

SAMILTON: So far, more than 1,500 auto accident survivors have lost their care, according to an independent study. Several have died.

TOM JUDD: This is just the beginning.

SAMILTON: Tom Judd heads the Michigan Brain Injury Provider Council.

JUDD: You know, over the next few months, we're going to see more and more companies who are just - can't hold on any longer, and more and more patients are going to be displaced.

SAMILTON: Starkly²³ put, he says more people will suffer, and more will likely die. Republican leaders in the state legislature have largely ignored media requests for interviews about the law's impact, and they've declined to schedule hearings on bills that were introduced to address what's been happening. For their part, insurance companies often say they're not taking care away from anyone. They're just following the law. Or they blame the care agencies for the situation, claiming they're price-gouging.

Susan Connors says this was largely avoidable.

CONNORS: And honestly, it didn't have to happen. Any one of those policymakers could have taken a look at any of the other states around the nation and understood how fantastic a system you had in Michigan and how awful it is elsewhere.

SAMILTON: As for making car insurance in Michigan more affordable, advocates for survivors say the law failed there, too. At the time the new law was passed, Michigan had the most expensive car insurance in the U.S. It's now number two. And in the past year, insurance premiums²⁴ in the state have gone up again.

For NPR News, I'm Tracy Samilton.

(SOUNDBITE OF FELBM'S "MAKTENE")

1 slash   

vi.大幅度削减；vt.猛砍，尖锐抨击，大幅减少；n.猛砍，斜线，长切口，衣衩

参考例句：

• The shop plans to slash fur prices after Spring Festival.该店计划在春节之后把皮货降价。
• Don't slash your horse in that cruel way.不要那样残忍地鞭打你的马。

2 slashed   

v.挥砍( slash的过去式和过去分词 )；鞭打；割破；削减

参考例句：

• Someone had slashed the tyres on my car. 有人把我的汽车轮胎割破了。
• He slashed the bark off the tree with his knife. 他用刀把树皮从树上砍下。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 coverage   

n.报导，保险范围，保险额，范围，覆盖

参考例句：

• There's little coverage of foreign news in the newspaper.报纸上几乎没有国外新闻报道。
• This is an insurance policy with extensive coverage.这是一项承保范围广泛的保险。

4 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

5 auto   

n.(=automobile)(口语)汽车

参考例句：

• Don't park your auto here.别把你的汽车停在这儿。
• The auto industry has brought many people to Detroit.汽车工业把许多人吸引到了底特律。

6 dismantling   

（枪支）分解

参考例句：

• The new government set about dismantling their predecessors' legislation. 新政府正着手废除其前任所制定的法律。
• The dismantling of a nuclear reprocessing plant caused a leak of radioactivity yesterday. 昨天拆除核后处理工厂引起了放射物泄漏。

7 survivors   

幸存者，残存者，生还者( survivor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The survivors were adrift in a lifeboat for six days. 幸存者在救生艇上漂流了六天。
• survivors clinging to a raft 紧紧抓住救生筏的幸存者

8 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

9 severely   

adv.严格地；严厉地；非常恶劣地

参考例句：

• He was severely criticized and removed from his post.他受到了严厉的批评并且被撤了职。
• He is severely put down for his careless work.他因工作上的粗心大意而受到了严厉的批评。

10 spinal   

adj.针的，尖刺的，尖刺状突起的；adj.脊骨的，脊髓的

参考例句：

• After three days in Japan,the spinal column becomes extraordinarily flexible.在日本三天，就已经使脊椎骨变得富有弹性了。
• Your spinal column is made up of 24 movable vertebrae.你的脊柱由24个活动的脊椎骨构成。

11 rehabilitation   

n.康复，悔过自新，修复，复兴，复职，复位

参考例句：

• He's booked himself into a rehabilitation clinic.他自己联系了一家康复诊所。
• No one can really make me rehabilitation of injuries.已经没有人可以真正令我的伤康复了。

12 cognitive   

adj.认知的，认识的，有感知的

参考例句：

• As children grow older,their cognitive processes become sharper.孩子们越长越大，他们的认知过程变得更为敏锐。
• The cognitive psychologist is like the tinker who wants to know how a clock works.认知心理学者倒很像一个需要通晓钟表如何运转的钟表修理匠。

13 stimulation   

n.刺激，激励，鼓舞

参考例句：

• The playgroup provides plenty of stimulation for the children.幼儿游戏组给孩子很多启发。
• You don't get any intellectual stimulation in this job.你不能从这份工作中获得任何智力启发。

14 ongoing   

adj.进行中的，前进的

参考例句：

• The problem is ongoing.这个问题尚未解决。
• The issues raised in the report relate directly to Age Concern's ongoing work in this area.报告中提出的问题与“关心老人”组织在这方面正在做的工作有直接的关系。

15 scrap   

n.碎片；废料；v.废弃，报废

参考例句：

• A man comes round regularly collecting scrap.有个男人定时来收废品。
• Sell that car for scrap.把那辆汽车当残品卖了吧。

16 affordable   

adj.支付得起的，不太昂贵的

参考例句：

• The rent for the four-roomed house is affordable.四居室房屋的房租付得起。
• There are few affordable apartments in big cities.在大城市中没有几所公寓是便宜的。

17 essentially   

adv.本质上，实质上，基本上

参考例句：

• Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
• She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。

18 tragic   

adj.悲剧的，悲剧性的，悲惨的

参考例句：

• The effect of the pollution on the beaches is absolutely tragic.污染海滩后果可悲。
• Charles was a man doomed to tragic issues.查理是个注定不得善终的人。

19 curry   

n.咖哩粉，咖哩饭菜；v.用咖哩粉调味，用马栉梳，制革

参考例句：

• Rice makes an excellent complement to a curry dish.有咖喱的菜配米饭最棒。
• Add a teaspoonful of curry powder.加一茶匙咖喱粉。

20 miller   

n.磨坊主

参考例句：

• Every miller draws water to his own mill.磨坊主都往自己磨里注水。
• The skilful miller killed millions of lions with his ski.技术娴熟的磨坊主用雪橇杀死了上百万头狮子。

21 hoist   

n.升高，起重机，推动；v.升起，升高，举起

参考例句：

• By using a hoist the movers were able to sling the piano to the third floor.搬运工人用吊车才把钢琴吊到3楼。
• Hoist the Chinese flag on the flagpole,please!请在旗杆上升起中国国旗！

22 killing   

n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财

参考例句：

• Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
• Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。

23 starkly   

adj. 变硬了的,完全的 adv. 完全,实在,简直

参考例句：

• The city of Befast remains starkly divided between Catholics and Protestants. 贝尔法斯特市完全被处在天主教徒和新教徒的纷争之中。
• The black rocks stood out starkly against the sky. 那些黑色的岩石在天空衬托下十分显眼。

24 premiums   

n.费用( premium的名词复数 )；保险费；额外费用；（商品定价、贷款利息等以外的）加价

参考例句：

• He paid premiums on his life insurance last year. 他去年付了人寿保险费。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• Moves are afoot to increase car insurance premiums. 现正在酝酿提高汽车的保险费。 来自《简明英汉词典》