[lit-ideas] Health Care, again
- From: JimKandJulieB@xxxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 2 Feb 2005 08:41:46 EST
_http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=564&e=4&u=/nm/health_bankrupt
cy_dc_
(http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=564&e=4&u=/nm/health_bankruptcy_dc)
There's been considerable discussion from time to time on this list re.
health care costs, insurance, etc. This gives a pretty clear picture of the
problem.
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_
(http://us.rd.yahoo.com/DailyNews/manual/nm/ts_nm/health_bankruptcy_dc/14171257/*http://news.sea
rch.yahoo.com/search/news?fr=news-storylinks&p="Bill%20Gates"&c=&n=20&yn=c&c=n
ews&cs=nw) - _web sites_
(http://us.rd.yahoo.com/DailyNews/manual/nm/ts_nm/health_bankruptcy_dc/14171257/*http://search.yahoo.com/search?fr=web-storylink
s&p=Bill%20Gates) ) you're just one serious illness away from bankruptcy,"
said Dr. David Himmelstein, an associate professor of medicine at Harvard
Medical School (_news_
(http://us.rd.yahoo.com/DailyNews/manual/nm/ts_nm/health_bankruptcy_dc/14171257/*http://news.search.yahoo.com/search/news?fr=news-storylink
s&p="Harvard
Medical%20School"&c=&n=20&yn=c&c=news&cs=nw) - _web sites_
(http://us.rd.yahoo.com/DailyNews/manual/nm/ts_nm/health_bankruptcy_dc/14171257/*http://search
.yahoo.com/search?fr=web-storylinks&p=Harvard%20Medical%20School) ) 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.
She said many employers and politicians were pressing for what she called
"stripped-down plans so riddled with co-payments, deductibles and exclusions
that serious illness leads straight to bankruptcy."
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