Medical Bankruptcy
Headlines From The Washington Post"Sick and Broke"
By Elizabeth Warren
Wednesday, February 9, 2005; Page A23
Nobody's safe. That's the warning from the first large-scale
study of medical bankruptcy.
Health insurance? That didn't protect 1 million Americans who
were financially ruined by illness or medical bills last year.
A comfortable middle-class lifestyle? Good education?
Decent job? No safeguards there. Most of the medically
bankrupt were middle-class homeowners who had been to
college and had responsible jobs -- until illness struck.
As part of a research study at Harvard University, our
researchers interviewed 1,771 Americans in bankruptcy courts
across the country. To our surprise, half said that illness
or medical bills drove them to bankruptcy. So each year,
2 million Americans -- those who file and their dependents
-- face the double disaster of illness and bankruptcy.
But the bigger surprise was that three-quarters of the
medically bankrupt had health insurance.
How did illness bankrupt middle-class Americans with health
insurance? For some, high co-payments, deductibles, exclusions
from coverage and other loopholes left them holding the bag
for thousands of dollars in out-of-pocket costs when serious
illness struck. But even families with Cadillac coverage were
often bankrupted by medical problems.
Too sick to work, they suddenly lost their jobs. With the
jobs went most of their income and their health insurance
-- a quarter of all employers cancel coverage the day you
leave work because of a disabling illness; another quarter
do so in less than a year. Many of the medically bankrupt
qualified for some disability payments (eventually), and had
the right under the COBRA law to continue their health coverage
-- if they paid for it themselves. But how many families can
afford a $1,000 monthly premium for coverage under COBRA,
especially after the breadwinner has lost his or her job?
Often, the medical bills arrived just as the insurance and
the paycheck disappeared.
Bankrupt families lost more than just assets. One out of
five went without food. A third had their utilities shut off,
and nearly two-thirds skipped needed doctor or dentist visits.
These families struggled to stay out of bankruptcy. They
arrived at the bankruptcy courthouse exhausted and emotionally
spent, brought low by a health care system that could offer
physical cures but that left them financially devastated.
Many in Congress have a response to the problem of the
growing number of medical bankruptcies: make it harder for
families to file bankruptcy regardless of the reason for
their financial troubles. Bankruptcy legislation -- widely
known as the credit industry wish list -- has been introduced
yet again to increase costs and decrease protection for every
family that turns to the bankruptcy system for help. With the
dramatic rise in medical bankruptcies now documented, this
tired approach would be no different than a congressional
demand to close hospitals in response to a flu epidemic. Making
bankruptcy harder puts the fallout from a broken health care
system back on families, leaving them with no escape.
The problem is not in the bankruptcy laws. The problem is in
the health care finance system and in chronic debates about
reforming it. The Harvard study shows:
• Health insurance isn't an on-off switch, giving full
protection to everyone who has it. There is real coverage
and there is faux coverage. Policies that can be canceled
when you need them most are often useless. So is bare-bones
coverage like the Utah Medicaid program pioneered by new
Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt; it pays
for primary care visits but not specialists or hospital care.
We need to talk about quality, durable coverage, not just
about how to get more names listed on nearly-useless
insurance policies.
• The link between jobs and health insurance is strained
beyond the breaking point. A harsh fact of life in America
is that illness leads to job loss, and that can mean a double
kick when people lose their insurance. Promising them
high-priced coverage through COBRA is meaningless if they
can't afford to pay. Comprehensive health insurance is the
only real solution, not just for the poor but for middle-class
Americans as well.
Without better coverage, millions more Americans will be hit
by medical bankruptcy over the next decade. It will not be
limited to the poorly educated, the barely employed or the
uninsured. The people financially devastated by a serious
illness are at the heart of the middle class.
Every 30 seconds in the United States, someone files for
bankruptcy in the aftermath of a serious health problem.
Time is running out. A broken health care system is
bankrupting families across this country.
The writer is a law professor at Harvard University.
Discussion:
Elizabeth is to be commended for the fine article above which
deals with so many of the problems associated with our health
delivery system today. During my last days in the Radiology
Department I had become increasingly concerned that we weren't
doing something right for the vast majority of so many sick
people. I was seeing more advanced disease earlier and earlier
in life. You could never convince me that we have extended
the "useful" lifespan of anyone. In fact I don't think now
that the lifespan is extended anyway. I saw way too many
young women in their forties die of breast cancer and many
men of similar age with advanced heart and carotid vascular
disease.
Becoming proactive ...
You could just wait until you get ill, lose your mortgage and
house, file bankruptcy and try to pay your medical bills with
your credit cards or ... you can adopt your own life and health
insurance plan. By taking an active part in your own health
and learning what you can, you can seriously reduce your risk
for "wallet" threatening disease. Getting sick is bad
enough without having to be broke, out of your job and your
house. Get good insurance, health insurance and also while you
are at it -some proactive quality of life insurance. The
MericleDiet will reduce your risk for disease about as much
as it can be reduced.
The MericleDiet "Quality of Life Insurance Policy"
While health insurance costs in the hundred of dollars
per month and catastrophic health care costs in the thousands
per month -The MericleDiet and the information associated
with it is a real bargain at $49 one time fee for life.
Even if you utilize just a tenth of the available
information, it is easily worth much more than that.
For more information please click on the link below.
Visit the MericleDiet
Thanks for your time.
Copyright © John Mericle M.D. All Rights Reserved
posted by John Mericle M.D. D.A.B.R. @ 5:37 PM
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