Medical Bills Linked to Nearly Two-thirds of All Bankruptcies

[SHRED]

This is criminal.
What kind of country are we?


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Illness and Medical Bills Linked to Nearly Two-thirds of All Bankruptcies
June 5, 2009

Harvard study finds 50 percent increase from 2001
Most of those bankrupted by illness were middle class and had insurance

Medical problems contributed to nearly two-thirds (62.1 percent) of all bankruptcies in 2007, according to a study in the August issue of the American Journal of Medicine that will be published online Thursday. The data were collected prior to the current economic downturn and hence likely understate the current burden of financial suffering. Between 2001 and 2007, the proportion of all bankruptcies attributable to medical problems rose by 49.6 percent. The authors' previous 2001 findings have been widely cited by policy leaders, including President Obama.

Surprisingly, most of those bankrupted by medical problems had health insurance. More than three-quarters (77.9 percent) were insured at the start of the bankrupting illness, including 60.3 percent who had private coverage. Most of the medically bankrupt were solidly middle class before financial disaster hit. Two-thirds were homeowners and three-fifths had gone to college. In many cases, high medical bills coincided with a loss of income as illness forced breadwinners to lose time from work. Often illness led to job loss, and with it the loss of health insurance.

Even apparently well-insured families often faced high out-of-pocket medical costs for co-payments, deductibles and uncovered services. Medically bankrupt families with private insurance reported medical bills that averaged $17,749 vs. $26,971 for the uninsured. High costs - averaging $22,568 - were incurred by those who initially had private coverage but lost it in the course of their illness.


MORE:
http://pdamerica.org/articles/news/2009-06-05-14-07-44-news.php

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[elocs]

1. I know. I read this same story here last night. Twice.

The date on the story is June 5. Anything a day old has in all likelihood already been post here and oftentimes more than once. This is good info, but a day later a different story or take on it would be good to see.

[madrchsod]

2. i`m here at least two to three hours everyday

and i`ll see the same story/article. i realized not everyone has nothing to do most of the day so i do`t get to jaded...i was going to comment on this but i think i already have in at least two others.

yes it would be nice to read some ideas about what needs to be done to fix it....

[elocs]

3. Generally if it is an important story from yesterday, somebody will have already posted it.

I would never post a story from yesterday. Hell, even with Latest Breaking News you'll get 3 people posting the same story within a minute of each other. The message when you make a new OP is "Good Citizens Check for Duplicates". Don't feel bad because someone will undoubtedly post this exact same story tomorrow. It doesn't make it a bad story, just old news.

On edit: I see now you are not the OP, but the advice still stands. My local newspaper does not post the same stories today that it did yesterday just in case someone might have missed them. However, updates on a story from yesterday do get posted again the next day. We don't need to have the same stories repeatedly posted just because someone missed it the first few times.

[applegrove]

4. Could America's health care mess be responsible for some of the mortgage mess?

[glitch]

6. America's problems are a morass of greed by a relative few, as it turns out.

But it's all inter-related.

[applegrove]

7. I would say to too.

[glitch]

5. Thanks for posting this "day old" article, I missed it the first time around.

I also eat day old bread, sometimes. :)