Shooting victims face medical bills

Some of the victims fighting for their lives after being wounded in last week's Colorado cinema rampage may face enormous medical bills without the benefit of health insurance.

The US doesn't have universal health coverage, though hospitals are required by federal law to stabilise patients during emergencies without regard to their ability to pay. The Obama administration's health care overhaul would cover millions more uninsured, but Republicans strongly object to its cost.

Members of the public have contributed almost 2 million dollars to help victims, including the Warner Bros. studio that released the Batman movie that was showing when the gunman opened fire. But it's not clear how much of that money will cover medical expenses.

One victim's family is already raising money online. And three of the five hospitals treating victims said they will limit or completely wipe out medical bills. An unknown number of the victims, however, still face a long recovery and the associated medical costs without health insurance.

Nearly one in three Coloradans, or about 1.5 million, either have no health insurance or have coverage that is inadequate, according to a 2011 report by The Colorado Trust, a health care advocacy group. The highest uninsured rate is among adults between 18 and 34. Many victims are in that age group.

Among the uninsured victims is a 23-year-old aspiring comic, Caleb Medley, who is in critical condition with a head wound. His wife, Katie, gave birth to their first child on Tuesday. His family and friends said they have set a goal of raising USD500,000 to cover his hospital bills and other expenses and were more than halfway there yesterday.

Children's Hospital Colorado announced it would use donations and its charity care fund to cover the medical expenses of the uninsured. "We are committed to supporting these families as they heal," according to a statement from the hospital, which treated six shooting victims.

HealthOne, which owns the Medical Centre of Aurora and Swedish Medical Centre, also says it will limit or eliminate charges based on patients' individual circumstances. Those hospitals have treated 22 shooting victims. However, the company cautioned its policy may not apply to all doctors working in its hospitals.

The other two hospitals, Denver Health Medical Centre and University of Colorado Hospital, where Medley is, wouldn't say whether they would assist shooting victims. However, they provided combined USD750 million in free care in 2011.

The key issue is what comes after the current hospital care, said Dr. Howard Brody, director of the Institute for the Medical Humanities at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston and a frequent critic of excessive medical costs. "Many of these people, I assume, will need prolonged and expensive rehabilitation after their immediate injuries are dealt with, and that seems precisely what hospitals today are less and less willing to cover out of their own funds, and no law requires that they do so, as far as I am aware," he said.
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Insurance for terrorism, key to sustaining FDI flows

Most investors across the world want to go to countries and economies where there is adequate insurance for life and property, especially now that issues of terrorism and kidnapping have grown in larger scale across the globe.
This is why Nigeria, being one of the frontier markets for investment, must take insurance very seriously by ensuring that there are polices and products to carter for terrorism, kidnapping and ransom, while efforts to improve the security situation continues.

“We expect that our efforts to support the local market develop capacity to ensure terrorism risk, kidnapping and ransom begin to yield result,” Femi Oyetunji, managing director, Continental Reinsurance plc, said.

Oyetunji said though the reinsurer, through a partnership with a UK firm, had packaged a programme for local insurance operators, that area of insurance was yet to pick up as expected.

Meanwhile, investors making enquiries on the Nigerian market are worried about the activities of Boko Haram in the Northern parts of the country, which analysts have noted is a huge impediment to the flow of foreign direct investment.

According to statistics recently released by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) inflows dropped by 19.24 percent from $2.13 billion in the fourth quarter (Q4), 2011 to $1.72 billion in Q1, 2012.

The decline in FDI inflows during the review period, the apex bank noted, were caused by growing level of insecurity occasioned by terrorist activities.

According to analysts, political risk insurance against conflict or breach of contract has become a key factor for investors seeking higher returns in developing markets in Africa, Asia and the Middle East.

They stated that the euro zone economic crisis and low returns in other advanced economies are forcing investors to look for more lucrative places to park their money.

Michel Wormser, chief operating officer, World Bank’s Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), was quoted to have said that “We are meeting investors that are finding their own markets quite constrained and are looking for new places to maintain their business activity at a higher level.”

Political changes in the Middle East, fewer long-running conflicts in Africa and less tolerance for leaders who cling to power, have also added to the interest, Wormser stated.

MIGA’s mission is to promote foreign direct investment into developing countries by offering political risk guarantees to the private sector.

According to him, demand for guarantees has been especially strong for large infrastructure development projects in countries such as Ivory Coast, Senegal, Kenya, Rwanda, Ghana and Pakistan. “We are seeing Africa as a major growth area for investment. Investors going to Africa today are different from the ones that used to go there, more sensitive to risks, and these new investors are much more demanding of the sort of products we are offering,” Wormser said.