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Medical bills underlie 60 percent of U.S. bankrupts: study
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Medical bills are behind more than 60 percent of U.S. personal bankruptcies, U.S. researchers reported on Thursday in a report they said demonstrates that healthcare reform is on the wrong track.
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.
"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.
CANCELED COVERAGE
"Nationally, a quarter of firms cancel coverage immediately when an employee suffers a disabling illness; another quarter do so within a year," the report reads.
Medical bills underlie 60 percent of U.S. bankrupts: study | U.S. | Reuters
* The personal bankruptcy rate was actually higher in Canada in 2006 and 2007 (0.30 percent for both years) than in the United States (0.20 percent and .27 percent).
* Medical spending was only one of several contributing factors in 17 percent of U.S. bankruptcies -- medical debts accounted for only 12 to 13 percent of the total debts among American bankruptcy filers who cited medical debt as one of their reasons for bankruptcy.
* Medical reasons were cited as the primary cause of bankruptcy by approximately 15 percent of bankrupt Canadian seniors (55 years of age and older).
* Non-medical expenditures comprise the majority of debt among bankrupt consumers in both Canada and the United States; the inability to earn sufficient income to cover these costs -- not exposure to uninsured medical costs -- is the real explanation for almost all bankruptcies in either country.
"I saw a thing on YouTube, a town hall meeting in Little Rock, Arkansas. And a woman from Brockside, Arkansas, stood up. She was weeping about the threat of socialism. You know what, lady, Brockside, Arkansas, doesn't have capitalism yet. Your idea of health care is leeches and moonshine and you're worried about socialism? Oh, Lord." -Bill Maher
Bill Maher is basically an insult comic, and that's fine, but when politicians like Pelosi respond to the passionate concerns of their constituents with the same kind of contempt and ridicule, that's unAmerican.
so you like to blow the insurance lobby.....do they pay more when you swallow?
if you get HIV from blowing them do you still get coverage?
The personal bankruptcy rate was actually higher in Canada in 2006 and 2007 (0.30 percent for both years) than in the United States (0.20 percent and .27 percent).
this doesn't support your arguement as it doesn't give a reason for the bankruptcy rate for just those two years. so a fail there.
Medical spending was only one of several contributing factors in 17 percent of U.S. bankruptcies
Medical spending was only one of several contributing factors in 17 percent of U.S. bankruptcies -- medical debts accounted for only 12 to 13 percent of the total debts among American bankruptcy filers who cited medical debt as one of their reasons for bankruptcy.
next this was from 2006 it is now the year 2009 ...try and keep current like my article is ...another fail.
Medical bills underlie 60 percent of U.S. bankrupts: study
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Medical bills are behind more than 60 percent of U.S. personal bankruptcies, U.S. researchers reported on Thursday in a report they said demonstrates that healthcare reform is on the wrong track.
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.
"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.
CANCELED COVERAGE
"Nationally, a quarter of firms cancel coverage immediately when an employee suffers a disabling illness; another quarter do so within a year," the report reads.
Medical bills underlie 60 percent of U.S. bankrupts: study | U.S. | Reuters
once again I will post this current report about the subject that happens to be in the U.S.
The researchers studied 2,134 random families who filed for bankruptcy between January and April in 2007,
still it's more current than yours that wasn't even about the U.S so you fail.. Ha Ha.
"I saw a thing on YouTube, a town hall meeting in Little Rock, Arkansas. And a woman from Brockside, Arkansas, stood up. She was weeping about the threat of socialism. You know what, lady, Brockside, Arkansas, doesn't have capitalism yet. Your idea of health care is leeches and moonshine and you're worried about socialism? Oh, Lord." -Bill Maher
Bill Maher is basically an insult comic, and that's fine, but when politicians like Pelosi respond to the passionate concerns of their constituents with the same kind of contempt and ridicule, that's unAmerican.
do you feel the same about the tools screaming over everybody else at townhalls?
Thanks Skull Pilot, I know you are looking at this bill objectively. I was hoping for an answer from this OneWorld character.
The government "approved" plan, what exactly are they going to look like, and how expensive is it going to be?
Or is this really a provision to eventually get everyone on the federal plan by making it impossible for private insurers to compete with the subsidized federal plan?
Bill Maher is basically an insult comic, and that's fine, but when politicians like Pelosi respond to the passionate concerns of their constituents with the same kind of contempt and ridicule, that's unAmerican.
do you feel the same about the tools screaming over everybody else at townhalls?
Voters have the right to demand their concerns be heard and responded to by the politicians whose duty is to represent them, but because the Dem Party leadership has tried to ram a bill through Congress without having an adequate national debate, so that voters haven't had the opportunity to voice their concerns and the Dem "tools" in Congress haven't even had time to read the bill they support, passions are high and the Dem leadership needs to accept responsibility for creating this situation. Regardless of how voters may express their concerns, the politicians whose duty it is to represent them should take those concerns seriously and answer their questions substantively instead of slandering them as unAmerican and brushing them off.
