Sick and Broke by Harvard Law School Professor Elizabeth Warren

[Coastie for Truth]

Just when you really (like really) need your health insurance -- it's gone. Harvard Law School Professor Elizabeth Warren discusses Harvard Medical School Professors Steffie Woolhandler and David Himmelstein's study--

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A9447-2005Feb8.html

snip--

Nobody's safe. That's the warning from the first large-scale study of medical bankruptcy.

Health insurance? That didn't protect 1 million Americans who were financially ruined by illness or medical bills last year.

A comfortable middle-class lifestyle? Good education? Decent job? No safeguards there. Most of the medically bankrupt were middle-class homeowners who had been to college and had responsible jobs -- until illness struck.

As part of a research study at Harvard University, our researchers interviewed 1,771 Americans in bankruptcy courts across the country. To our surprise, half said that illness or medical bills drove them to bankruptcy. So each year, 2 million Americans -- those who file and their dependents -- face the double disaster of illness and bankruptcy.

But the bigger surprise was that three-quarters of the medically bankrupt had health insurance.

How did illness bankrupt middle-class Americans with health insurance? For some, high co-payments, deductibles, exclusions from coverage and other loopholes left them holding the bag for thousands of dollars in out-of-pocket costs when serious illness struck. But even families with Cadillac coverage were often bankrupted by medical problems.

Too sick to work, they suddenly lost their jobs. With the jobs went most of their income and their health insurance -- a quarter of all employers cancel coverage the day you leave work because of a disabling illness; another quarter do so in less than a year. Many of the medically bankrupt qualified for some disability payments (eventually), and had the right under the COBRA law to continue their health coverage -- if they paid for it themselves. But how many families can afford a $1,000 monthly premium for coverage under COBRA, especially after the breadwinner has lost his or her job?

Often, the medical bills arrived just as the insurance and the paycheck disappeared.

snip

The full study is abstracted at
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=15689369

The abstract --

MarketWatch: Illness And Injury As Contributors To Bankruptcy.

Himmelstein DU, Warren E, Thorne D, Woolhandler S.

Harvard Medical School and a primary care physician at Cambridge Hospital in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

In 2001, 1.458 million American families filed for bankruptcy. To investigate medical contributors to bankruptcy, we surveyed 1,771 personal bankruptcy filers in five federal courts and subsequently completed in-depth interviews with 931 of them. About half cited medical causes, which indicates that 1.9-2.2 million Americans (filers plus dependents) experienced medical bankruptcy. Among those whose illnesses led to bankruptcy, out-of-pocket costs average $11,854 since the start of illness; 75.7 percent had insurance at the onset of illness. Medical debtors were 42 percent more likely than other debtors to experience lapses in coverage. Even middle-class insured families often fall prey to financial catastrophe when sick.

The full text is at
http://content.healthaffairs.org/cgi/reprint/hlthaff.w5.63v1
and
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/utils/lofref.fcgi?PrId=3051&uid=15689369&db=pubmed&url=http://content.healthaffairs.org/cgi/pmidlookup?view=reprint&pmid=15689369

[MountainLaurel]

1. Amen

Unless you're one of the super-rich, you're only a tumor away from financial devastation.

And to think that the U.S. is supposed to be considered a "civilized" nation.

:puke:

[dreamcollector]

4. By whom?

It's a myth that people in other countries envy you. I am amazed that Americans continue to swallow the line that Canada has high taxes and has to wait forever for medical treatment and would really LOVE to be American. No thanks! I cannot believe you are not just absolutely insisting that your politicians bring you in line with the standards other advanced countries enjoy. I can't help wondering if there aren't as many wimps South of the border as there are raving fanatical rightists. I'm just reading now THE TRUTH ABOUT THE DRUG COMPANIES. (Marcia Angell) It is horrifying! Just horrifying! Why do you let them exploit you like that? Regulate 'em! Regulate the living bejesus out of 'em. Spend their money on research? Not likely. Don't you think it's absurd that even some American states are trying to get cheap drugs from Canada rather than taking on the drug lobby? Now big drugs are trying to stop even that and even lobbying and threatening Canadian politicians. For god's sake start a non-partisan protest movement to fight all politicians and make them serve the people. We have a group here called "The Council For Candians" started by and activist Maud Barlow. The group just mushroomed and we hold our politicians' feet to the fire, all three parties. You can bet they listen to us. Noam Chomsky congratulated Canadians for stopping some pretty nasty stuff from happening because of our non-partisan political action. Get behind a group that simply will not allow right/left bickering and fight for stuff you all really want and need --- like decent health care. You have no idea how good life is in Canada. Did you know that plumbers make $100,000. and up? Our teachers are very well paid and have wonderfully comfortable retirements. They bop around the world enjoying their golden years. Hey, and they can visit Cuba too! Sorry I rambled on.

[MountainLaurel]

5. I always knew it

Perhaps it's just another national myth that's propogated in the text books used in the public schools.

[yurbud]

2. I teach college but don't have health insurance

Public schools too.

We need legislators to go after the health insurance industry and tightly regulate them and let them know it's that or state run single payer.

[Coastie for Truth]

3. Woolhandler and Himmelstein are "single payer advocates"

and, of course, MISTER Bill Frist's family owned for profit healt care company closed our local ER on 12/8.

Howard Dean is a healer and physician -- MISTER Frist is a business tycoon who once attended medical school.

[SharonAnn]

12. And MISTER Frist's company was fined $1.2 billion for Medicare fraud

that was 2-3 years ago.

$1.2 billion in fines for defrauding Medicare.

Why is that not mentioned in the MSM?

[Wright Patman]

17. Frist's company

bought the hospital in my small town in the mid-1990s, used its losses on the balance sheet from inadequate Medicare reimbursement (rural hospitals were compensated at a lower rate) as a tax writeoff for a couple of years, and then shut it down.

Fortunately a non-profit regional medical center in a nearby city finally reopened it last summer.

[Doctor Panacea]

18. I agree!

Coastie, I love you! :toast:

I am a physician in the state from which Mister Frist is a senator. That guy needs to learn some compassion before he is again called Doctor Frist.

Have you noticed how pale and thin and weird-looking he is? I hereby propose that his nicknames from now on be "Dracula" and "The Vampire"!

[Coastie for Truth]

19. Closed our emergency room

Frist closed the Emergency Room at San Jose Regional -- forcing Ambulances to leave the down town San Jose area.

[CHIMO]

6. Study: Soaring Medical Bills Account for Half of All U.S. Bankruptcies

Study: Soaring Medical Bills Account for Half of All U.S. Bankruptcies

DR. STEPHIE WOOLHANDLER: Well, this is the first study to collect detailed financial and medical information from a large cross-section of people filing for bankruptcy in bankruptcy courts. As Juan indicated, we found that fully half of all bankruptcies in the United States are caused by medical illness and medical bills. We're talking about three-quarters of a million American families pulled through the bankruptcy courts every year by medical illnesses and medical bills. When you count the debtors and their dependents and their children, we're talking about 2 million Americans every year in bankruptcy due to medical illness and medical bills.

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/02/04/1537243

[Coastie for Truth]

7. Sick and Broke by Harvard Law School Professor Elizabeth Warren

Just when you really (like really) need your health insurance -- it's gone. Harvard Law School Professor Elizabeth Warren discusses Harvard Medical School Professors Steffie Woolhandler and David Himmelstein's study--

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A9447-2005Feb8.html

snip--

Nobody's safe. That's the warning from the first large-scale study of medical bankruptcy.

Health insurance? That didn't protect 1 million Americans who were financially ruined by illness or medical bills last year.

A comfortable middle-class lifestyle? Good education? Decent job? No safeguards there. Most of the medically bankrupt were middle-class homeowners who had been to college and had responsible jobs -- until illness struck.

As part of a research study at Harvard University, our researchers interviewed 1,771 Americans in bankruptcy courts across the country. To our surprise, half said that illness or medical bills drove them to bankruptcy. So each year, 2 million Americans -- those who file and their dependents -- face the double disaster of illness and bankruptcy.

But the bigger surprise was that three-quarters of the medically bankrupt had health insurance.

How did illness bankrupt middle-class Americans with health insurance? For some, high co-payments, deductibles, exclusions from coverage and other loopholes left them holding the bag for thousands of dollars in out-of-pocket costs when serious illness struck. But even families with Cadillac coverage were often bankrupted by medical problems.

Too sick to work, they suddenly lost their jobs. With the jobs went most of their income and their health insurance -- a quarter of all employers cancel coverage the day you leave work because of a disabling illness; another quarter do so in less than a year. Many of the medically bankrupt qualified for some disability payments (eventually), and had the right under the COBRA law to continue their health coverage -- if they paid for it themselves. But how many families can afford a $1,000 monthly premium for coverage under COBRA, especially after the breadwinner has lost his or her job?

Often, the medical bills arrived just as the insurance and the paycheck disappeared.

snip

The full study is abstracted at
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=15689369

The abstract --

MarketWatch: Illness And Injury As Contributors To Bankruptcy.

Himmelstein DU, Warren E, Thorne D, Woolhandler S.

Harvard Medical School and a primary care physician at Cambridge Hospital in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

In 2001, 1.458 million American families filed for bankruptcy. To investigate medical contributors to bankruptcy, we surveyed 1,771 personal bankruptcy filers in five federal courts and subsequently completed in-depth interviews with 931 of them. About half cited medical causes, which indicates that 1.9-2.2 million Americans (filers plus dependents) experienced medical bankruptcy. Among those whose illnesses led to bankruptcy, out-of-pocket costs average $11,854 since the start of illness; 75.7 percent had insurance at the onset of illness. Medical debtors were 42 percent more likely than other debtors to experience lapses in coverage. Even middle-class insured families often fall prey to financial catastrophe when sick.

The full text is at
http://content.healthaffairs.org/cgi/reprint/hlthaff.w5.63v1
and
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/utils/lofref.fcgi?PrId=3051&uid=15689369&db=pubmed&url=http://content.healthaffairs.org/cgi/pmidlookup?view=reprint&pmid=15689369

[Wright Patman]

8. 'It sucks to be you'

is the White House's response to people like this.

Just read its proposed budget.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

9. You know, even Japan, whose public health insurance system isn't

terribly generous (30% copay for most medical care under the government system), is generous to people who have chronic or catastrophic conditions. I know an American translator who doesn't dare move back to the States because he'd lose Japanese government coverage for a chronic medical condition and would be totally ineligible for individual insurance from American companies. Even if he got a job with benefits, his condition would be excluded as a "pre-existing condition." So he stays in Japan.

[enki23]

10. that's just part of the capitalist utopia

the unproductive members of society are simply a waste of our resources.

[justgamma]

11. And guess what happens

with the unpaid medical bills? The cost to everyone else goes up. It seems to be a domino affect. The cost goes up, more people can't pay. More people can't pay, the cost goes up. A vicious circle.

[bloom]

13. the cost goes up - the CEOs of the HMOs

keep $10 million/year - doctors charge more because they can - the costs go up - HMO CEOs keep even more - doctors charge even more - the costs go up....

[dbeach]

14. my medical insurance has soared in 2 yrs..

from $275 /mo to $600 /mo..and I can't get out of plan til next yr...
BIOB = Blame It On Bush and the spineless Dems

[GetTheRightVote]

15. This is the setup I am afriad of most

:kick:

[rodeodance]

16. gives new meaning to "but for the grace of god, there go I"