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Medical Bill Dilemmas??
You Bet! Read On....
Only With The Best
In Mind We Share This Information. It's such a shame that
not only does Hepatitis C rob us of our health and zing in life,
but our pocket books as well! I wish each and every one of
you who can relate to this article, only the best in your quest
to get healthy. ~Cindy~
Half of
Bankruptcy Due to Medical Bills -- U.S. Study
By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Half of all U.S. bankruptcies are
caused by soaring medical bills and most people sent
into debt by illness are middle-class workers with
health insurance, researchers said on Wednesday.
The study, published in the journal Health Affairs,
estimated that medical bankruptcies affect about 2
million Americans every year, if both debtors and their
dependents, including about 700,000 children, are
counted.
"Our study is frightening. Unless you're Bill Gates
(news - web sites) you're just one serious illness away
from bankruptcy," said Dr. David Himmelstein, an
associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical
School (news - web sites) who led the study.
"Most of the medically bankrupt were average Americans
who happened to get sick. Health insurance offered
little protection."
The researchers got the permission of bankruptcy judges
in California, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and
Texas to survey 931 people who filed for bankruptcy.
"About half cited medical causes, which indicates that
1.9 to 2.2 million Americans (filers plus dependents)
experienced medical bankruptcy," they wrote.
"Among those whose illnesses led to bankruptcy,
out-of-pocket costs averaged $11,854 since the start of
illness; 75.7 percent had insurance at the onset of
illness."
The average bankrupt person surveyed had spent $13,460
on co-payments, deductibles and uncovered services if
they had private insurance. People with no insurance
spent an average of $10,893 for such out-of-pocket
expenses.
"Even middle-class insured families often fall prey to
financial catastrophe when sick," the researchers wrote.
Bankruptcy specialists said the numbers seemed sound.
"From 1982 to 1989, I reviewed every bankruptcy petition
filed in South Carolina, and during that period I came
to the conclusion that there were two major causes of
bankruptcy: medical bills and divorce," said George
Cauthen, a lawyer at Columbia-based law firm Nelson
Mullins Riley & Scarborough LLP.
"Each accounted, roughly, for about a third of all
individual filings in South Carolina."
He said fewer than 1 percent of all bankruptcy filings
were due to credit card debt. "That truly is a myth,"
Cauthen said in a telephone interview.
Cauthen said he was not surprised to hear that so many
of the bankrupt people in the study were middle-class.
"Usually people who have something to protect file
bankruptcy," he said. "The truly indigent -- people that
we see on the street -- there is no relief that we can
give them."
Dr. Steffie Woolhandler, a Harvard associate professor
and physician who advocates for universal health
coverage, said the study supported demands for health
reform.
"Covering the uninsured isn't enough. We must also
upgrade and guarantee continuous coverage for those who
have insurance," Woolhandler said in a statement.
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