60 percent of U.S. bankruptcies due to Medical Bills

But teh Mad Max Baucus hearts insurance companies.
Max's is a rather "arresting" health care plan, if you know what I mean.
Will Obama figure it out in time?

Medical bills prompt more than 60 percent of U.S. bankruptcies
Fri June 5, 2009Next Article in Health »
By Theresa Tamkins CNN.com

This year, an estimated 1.5 million Americans will declare bankruptcy. Many people may chalk up that misfortune to overspending or a lavish lifestyle, but a new study suggests that more than 60 percent of people who go bankrupt are actually capsized by medical bills



Bankruptcies due to medical bills increased by nearly 50 percent in a six-year period, from 46 percent in 2001 to 62 percent in 2007, and most of those who filed for bankruptcy were middle-class, well-educated homeowners, according to a report that will be published in the August issue of The American Journal of Medicine.

"Unless you're a Warren Buffett or Bill Gates, you're one illness away from financial ruin in this country," says lead author Steffie Woolhandler, M.D., of the Harvard Medical School, in Cambridge, Mass. "If an illness is long enough and expensive enough, private insurance offers very little protection against medical bankruptcy, and that's the major finding in our study."

... 78 percent of them had health insurance, but many of them were bankrupted anyway because there were gaps in their coverage like co-payments and deductibles and uncovered services," says Woolhandler. "Other people had private insurance but got so sick that they lost their job and lost their insurance."
...

http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/06/05/bankruptcy.medical.bills/index.html

over a year ago. They didn't want to though. They have over $20,000 in medical bills from a period several years ago when they were uninsured. They were barely staying afloat and then her husband was laid off in March. Some might say it was the lay-off that caused it, but it is really the medical bills. The layoff just made them realize they would not be able to get out of it.

and we went through a second one about 8 years later. Both were due solely to medical bills. At the second bankruptcy hearing the judge told me that the figure where we lived was around 80% were due to medical bills. We were able to get my wife on Social Security Disability and Medicare and have never had problems since. I have PA state backed private insurance, which has turned out to be better than the insurance I had when I was working for the state of PA.

I had bypass surgery in 2003 and later found NO PRIVATE INSURER would insure me or anyone else with such surgery except Blue Cross, which was very basic coverage and would cost me $800/month just for me.

Insurance is a scam. Single payer is a good answer.

mark

I can't get private coverage either, because of a previous bout with melanoma,
which was caught extremely early and was determined not to have spread.
The insurer went so far as to tell me that virtually no company would
take me unless they were required to by law.

I'm all for single payer, but at this point I'll even take reform that
prevents declining or excluding based on pre-existing conditions.

She and I both have PA State-backed health insurance and it has served us very well - actually better coverage than I had when working as a State employee. Some states actually have such coverage and don't advertize it....

mark

and if we get conned into subsidizing insurance companies we are in for more
economic disaster.

I am sure the Ins Cos would find a way to limit treatment.

was being discussed...and damned if they didn't decide to treat those with Medical bills the same as the Let's go to Vegas people. I was absolutely stunned that our gov't could be so fucked.

If anyone knows how to research and find that amendment vote, I'd appreciate it. I want to see which dems voted against the sick. I probably can name off of them. It was a vote in the Senate. If I remember correctly, I think Biden voted against the sick. But I could be wrong.

They knew this was the case and went ahead and did it anyway.

I'm rather surprised that a sick person hasn't gone postal over this.

We have become a greedy, hateful place.