Study: Medical bills trigger 46% of US personal bankrupties

[Plekhanov]

Medical bills spark 46% of U.S. personal bankruptcies: study
Last Updated Wed, 02 Feb 2005 18:05:49 EST
CBC News

BOSTON - Nearly half of all personal bankruptcies in the United States are triggered by big medical bills racked up because of serious illnesses or accidents, a Harvard University study suggests.

The study, published Wednesday in the online journal Health Affairs, looked at 1,771 people who had declared personal bankruptcy to seek court protection from creditors in five American states in 2001.

Researchers from Harvard's law and medical schools later talked to 931 of them. They determined that illness or medical bills were either the main cause or a contributing factor in 46.2 per cent of the bankruptcies.

"Even middle-class insured families often fall prey to financial catastrophe when sick," an abstract of the study noted.

More than 43 million people in the United States have no health insurance.

But even people who had health insurance through their employer were among those forced to declare bankruptcy in an effort to escape overwhelming debts that they could not pay, the study found.

About 75 per cent of those who said medical bills triggered their bankruptcy had insurance coverage at the beginning of their illness.

In 38 per cent of the cases studied, that insurance lapsed while they were still being treated, or covered only catastrophic illnesses and not more minor but ongoing conditions.

Among the people whose medical bills contributed to their bankruptcy, the study said, "out-of-pocket costs average[d] $11,854 [US] since the start of illness."

The study's authors said that when the national numbers were crunched, and the dependents of the filers were included, between 1.9 million and 2.2 million Americans experienced "medical bankruptcy" in 2001. That figure includes 700,000 children.

Yet bizarrely the ideologically blinded Tories still want to dismantle the exceptionally cheap and efficient NHS and replace it with a more American “market based” model because it gives patients more “choice”. It seems to me that the current US system forces many people to make choices that nobody in a 1st world economy should have to make.

[Admiral Valdemar]

At least they're not forced to pay those dreaded taxes to pay for healthcare, I mean that's just evil communism and makes for less well off citizens.

[Keevan_Colton]

At least they're not forced to pay those dreaded taxes to pay for healthcare, I mean that's just evil communism and makes for less well off citizens.

I've been reading up on stuff to try and get on an exchange program to the US, part of it was about medical care. It said that in the event you break a bone, or are seriously cut, do not go to a hospital, wait and call your doctor...

[Col. Crackpot]

I've been reading up on stuff to try and get on an exchange program to the US, part of it was about medical care. It said that in the event you break a bone, or are seriously cut, do not go to a hospital, wait and call your doctor...

while that might be a bit rough for you, it makes perfect sense for me. I'd much rather deal with my regular physician than go through the hospital. Your regular physician knows your medical history and you can be sure you get someone you have confidence in and not some overworked resident at the end of a 16 hour training shift.

[Durandal]

Yes people are going bankrupt from medical bills. But at the end of the day, we can proudly hold up our heads and declare that we don't have socialized healthcare.

[Admiral Valdemar]

Yes people are going bankrupt from medical bills. But at the end of the day, we can proudly hold up our heads and declare that we don't have socialized healthcare.

The funny thing is, I bet a lot of people wouldn't say that with the minty fresh hint of sarcasm in the voice.

[Durandal]

Yes people are going bankrupt from medical bills. But at the end of the day, we can proudly hold up our heads and declare that we don't have socialized healthcare.

The funny thing is, I bet a lot of people wouldn't say that with the minty fresh hint of sarcasm in the voice.

Of course! I may have been evicted because my medical bills were so gigantic, and I couldn't afford them, but at least I was kicked out of my home in the proud capitalist tradition.

[Keevan_Colton]

while that might be a bit rough for you, it makes perfect sense for me. I'd much rather deal with my regular physician than go through the hospital. Your regular physician knows your medical history and you can be sure you get someone you have confidence in and not some overworked resident at the end of a 16 hour training shift.

It flys in the face of everything I've been brought up with...you're injured you go and get medical help immediately. It makes perfect sense to me...the idea of waiting to call your doctor and make an appointment...jesus christ, that's civilized?

[Plekhanov]

I've been reading up on stuff to try and get on an exchange program to the US, part of it was about medical care. It said that in the event you break a bone, or are seriously cut, do not go to a hospital, wait and call your doctor...

while that might be a bit rough for you, it makes perfect sense for me. I'd much rather deal with my regular physician than go through the hospital. Your regular physician knows your medical history and you can be sure you get someone you have confidence in and not some overworked resident at the end of a 16 hour training shift.

Well if I really wanted to I could call my GP or a private doctor after breaking a bone (though that might not please them if I have this accident out of office hours) or whatever to get treated by somebody I personally know and who knows my medical history. However unlike you I also have the option of going to the nearest casualty department to get patched up, safe in the knowledge that not only will it not bankrupt me it in fact it won't cost me a thing.

I'm really quite fond of having a system where me and my family don't have to make tough financial decision at times of illness and injury and also where we actually pay far less for the care we receive than the average US citizen does.

[Tsyroc]

It flys in the face of everything I've been brought up with...you're injured you go and get medical help immediately. It makes perfect sense to me...the idea of waiting to call your doctor and make an appointment...jesus christ, that's civilized?

If it's me I go directly to the ER.

I'm going to have to go to the hospital (where I work) to get the X-Ray anway unless I want to pay the cost of having my GP do it in the office.

Besides, I can get an apointment to see someone in my doctor's office pretty quickly but it'll still be faster going to the ER and if I have broken bone they'll be better able to deal with it at work. Plus they will definately know where my insurance will cover me if I need to see an orthopedist (Tucson Orthopaedic Institute is right on the hospital campus)

It's cheaper to go the doctor's office ($10 a visit) as long as I don't have any costly tests done. If I am going to have to have something done I might as well pay the $50 fee for the ER and be right in the same building I'd need to be in if I was going to get an x-ray, MRI, Cat Scan etc... (all that stuff is covered then)

I should mention that my insurance is a little odd because I work for a hospital. To a certain extent the hospital self insures it's employees. Meaning that if at all possible we have to use facilities owned or operated by the hospital. What it can't do is handled through United Healthcare which is one of the few HMOs that opperates in Southern Arizona.

[Col. Crackpot]

while that might be a bit rough for you, it makes perfect sense for me. I'd much rather deal with my regular physician than go through the hospital. Your regular physician knows your medical history and you can be sure you get someone you have confidence in and not some overworked resident at the end of a 16 hour training shift.

It flys in the face of everything I've been brought up with...you're injured you go and get medical help immediately. It makes perfect sense to me...the idea of waiting to call your doctor and make an appointment...jesus christ, that's civilized?

if given the choice of waiting an hour for an appointment or waiting an hour in the insanity that is the emergency room at one of the downtown hospitals, i'd happily choose the former. The hospital would just end up sending me to an orthopedic specialist to put the cast on anyway. Obviously there are cases when i'd go straight to the hospital. My co-pay is $50 and IIRC my maximum annual ER deductible for all insured under my plan is $200. Thats a drop in the bucket, really.

[Boyish-Tigerlilly]

But think of the children! They will get inferior quality in SH! Can't have that.

[The Kernel]

while that might be a bit rough for you, it makes perfect sense for me. I'd much rather deal with my regular physician than go through the hospital. Your regular physician knows your medical history and you can be sure you get someone you have confidence in and not some overworked resident at the end of a 16 hour training shift.

It flys in the face of everything I've been brought up with...you're injured you go and get medical help immediately. It makes perfect sense to me...the idea of waiting to call your doctor and make an appointment...jesus christ, that's civilized?

There are good alternatives to this, I simply go to my clinic's Urgent Care ward, in which I'll wait a maximum of 45 minutes (although they'll see you immediately if you meet their triage requirements) and I get first rate medical care by the clinics medical staff, many of them I deal with on an appointment basis. It's also a ton cheaper for the clinic to run then an ER.

[Admiral Valdemar]

But what if you're in a car accident and the paramedics take you to ER? There are situations when you'll be unconcious, but can you still get that sort of treatment at these clinics and if so, have cards that detail your request to go there?

[The Kernel]

But what if you're in a car accident and the paramedics take you to ER? There are situations when you'll be unconcious, but can you still get that sort of treatment at these clinics and if so, have cards that detail your request to go there?

ER's aren't so bad in the US for emergencies like car accidents, I've been in an ER for such reasons a couple times myself. Where ER's suck is when you have a condition that isn't critical (so you don't meet triage requirements) but you still need immediate medical care.

For example, recently I came down with a bad case of strep throat which debilitated me to the point where I needed an IV and intravenous antibiotics. An ER would have had me waiting for a long time (pushing ahead gunshot vicitims, car accident patients, apendecitis, etc) but my Urgent Care center saw me immediately, and for ~30% of the cost of an ER visit.

[The Kernel]

I should mention that one of the reasons US health care premiums are so high is because there is no patient incentive (or at least, not enough of one) to avoid the ER except when absolutely necessary. It doesn't mean much to me to spend 1/3 of the cost at an Urgent Care center since I have a fully covered PPO, but someone has to pay those costs and I prefer to lay as little burden on the health care system as possible.

[Chmee]

But think of the children! They will get inferior quality in SH! Can't have that.

Inferior to what? If we could even move the U.S. into the top TWENTY countries in the world for lowest infant mortality rate, it would be a major step forward ....