WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Medical bills are involved in more than 60 percent of U.S. personal bankruptcies, an increase of 50 percent in just six years, U.S. researchers reported on Thursday.
More than 75 percent of these bankrupt families had health insurance but still were overwhelmed by their medical debts, the team at Harvard Law School, Harvard Medical School and Ohio University reported in the American Journal of Medicine.
Got that? More than 75% had health insurance.
“Most medical debtors were well-educated, owned homes and had middle-class occupations.”
Hmm… sound like anyone you know?
The researchers, whose work was paid for by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, said the share of bankruptcies that could be blamed on medical problems rose by 50 percent from 2001 to 2007.
“Unless you’re Warren Buffett, your family is just one serious illness away from bankruptcy,” Harvard’s Dr. David Himmelstein, an advocate for a single-payer health insurance program for the United States, said in a statement.
“For middle-class Americans, health insurance offers little protection,” he added.
Is this really a sign of a great country? Should having an illness or an accident be a standard reason for filing bankruptcy?
I know I write on this topic a lot, but it amazes me that there’s anything left to debate. As a nation we should be ashamed that people’s lives are ruined simply because they became ill or injured – 75% who had health insurance.
Seems to me, the greatness of a country is judged on how they care for their young, old and sick.