Why 750,000 Americans were forced to declare bankruptcy...

[ailsagirl]

Think health insurance will be the safety net you need if you're hit with a catastrophic illness?? Think again.

Nearly HALF of the estimated 1.5 million personal bankruptcies filed each year result from high health expenses-- even though 76% of the filers are covered by insurance at the onset of illness!!!

U.S. News & World Report
2/2/05
By Josh Fischman

We have health insurance for several reasons, but one of the big ones is to protect us from high medical bills when we get sick. But insurance, it turns out, may not be the protection that many people think it is. Illness and medical bills are big reasons behind fully half of all personal bankruptcies, affecting about 700,000 households per year, according to a new study. And most of those households had insurance.

=snip=

What the researchers wanted to know: Of the approximately 1.5 million bankruptcies each year, how many had illness or unpaid medical bills as a big contributing factor?

=snip=

What they found: These were working- class or middle-class people, and 76 percent of them had health insurance when they first got sick. (Many lost this coverage because the insurance was through their jobs, so it disappeared when they couldn't work.) Half of the bankruptcies were caused, in part, by illness and medical debt. Their median debt was about $16,500, and the major part of that debt was payments to doctors and hospitals. Families initially tried to pay the debt for several months, says Elizabeth Warren, a bankruptcy expert at Harvard Law School. Sixty-one percent went without needed medical care to make payments, 30 percent had a utility shut off, and 22 percent cut back on their food.

What this study means to you: Insurance is not the safety net many of us assume. A combination of illness, loss of job and income, and high medical bills can drive people into bankruptcy. "Insurance that disappears when you are sick is like an umbrella that melts in the rain," says physician David Himmelstein, one of the investigators.

http://www.usnews.com/usnews/health/briefs/publichealth/hb050202c.htm

[rodeodance]

1. such depressing news!!!

[ailsagirl]

2. I know it is... I had thought that

it was those who didn't have health insurance that were wiped out by huge medical bills...this was a huge shock.

The health care industry needs a HUGE overhaul!!! None of us is safe!!

:(

[Tux]

3. And

With the new bankruptcy law, you're screwed if you get ill and lack insurance. Corporate slavery is still slavery.

[ailsagirl]

4. This is truly an outrage... I understand why the repugs

voted for the bankruptcy bill, but WHY THE DEMS?????

I don't want to see ONE of those Dem reps (and senators) who voted yes re-elected. I hope their constituents have bombarded their offices with outrage!!!

:grr:

[Geo55]

5. If you continue to subscribe

to the illusion that most Dems are not sycophants to the corporate culture that has become our present day form of government,
then you will continually be DIS-illusioned.

It's ALL about the money .......nothing else.

[ailsagirl]

6. Whether or not their constituents are happy matters...

logic should indicate. People put those people in office, hence they can put these people OUT of office, should they not be happy with the job their officials are doing.

[MountainLaurel]

8. Follow the money

I would bet that a majority of those Dems who voted for the bankruptcy bill have received some weighty campaign contributions from banks, credit cards companies, etc.

[dweller]

7. thanks for posting this

i needed some info to pass along to a relative i was discussing health ins. scam recently. Plus there is a link to a previous 2002 article "living on the edge" with more depressing info. I posted it in Editorials.

sad and infuriating.
dp

[Shallah Kali]

9. dirty rotten scoundrels didn't pass exemption for debt due to illness

I want to use stronger language but I fear my keyboard would blow up.