When a trauma victim receives proper medical care within the first hour following an accident his chances of survival triple. We all want to know that the trauma system will always be available if we need it;  however, the trauma system is made up of physicians, hospitals, emergency medical service providers and rehabilitation facilities who volunteer to be involved because they see a need.

Private health insurance, Medicare and Medicaid help cover the costs, but they come nowhere near paying the true costs incurred by providers participating in the system. And, of every 10 trauma patients three are uninsured and pay nothing. As a result, the South Carolina providers who choose to provide trauma services lost $38 million during 2007 on trauma patients alone. These losses, which translate to higher charges and premiums for the insured, have more than doubled since 2003 when the trauma system incurred $18 million in unpaid costs. A major reason is a significant decrease in the number of privately insured patients. In 2003, half of the state’s trauma patients had private insurance coverage. Today only 37 percent have private coverage.