Column: Medical bankruptcy is an American scandal -- and that's not debatable
Youve got to hand it to Sen. Bernie Sanders for his ability to keep hot-button issues in the forefront of the presidential race.
The latest example is his assertion, made at least twice in the last month, that medical bills drive 500,000 Americans into bankruptcy every year. The Washington Posts fact-checker column examined the numbers and concluded that Sanders deserved three Pinocchios for the statement, which means the Post found it mostly false and that Sanders was, basically, lying.
The Post blundered, as the authors of the study on which Sanders based his claim point out. In the real world, Sanders assertion that 500,000 Americans will go bankrupt this year from medical bills is mostly true. Medical bankruptcy is an American scandal, and possibly even more common than he or the studys authors calculate.
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Whats clear about the financial consequences of the American system of healthcare financing, which places much of the burden on households, is that theyre widespread and scandalous. One signpost is the rise of crowdfunding campaigns via platforms such as GoFundMe to raise money for families facing medical bills. In a civilized country, public appeals for help with medical bills shouldnt exist. Yet GoFundMe reports that it hosts more than 250,000 medical campaigns per year, raising more than $650 million a year.
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Unquestionably, the individual burden of medical costs in the U.S. can be unsupportable and, in the richest country in the world, should be unnecessary. Sanders and Warren are right to point the finger at a dysfunctional healthcare financing system. Those who say things arent that bad are wrong; its worse. Debating whether the number of Americans forced into bankruptcy by medical debt is 500,000 or some other figure is nitpicking, and woefully beside the point. What everyone knows is that the threat is bad enough, and it can strike at anyone.
https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2019-09-04/hiltzik-medical-bankruptcy-american-scandal