Medical bankrupcy

Medical bills among the insured are a major reason for bankrupcy...

but if you scroll down, you see the article mentions has some holes.

First, it was done by a doctor who supports "universal health care"...and from Harvard, where socializing medicine is considered the holy grail...

and then we see this:

"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."

You went bankrupt for $11,000? Most people's cars cost more than that. I often advise patients to pay so much a month until it's paid...and if hospitals and offices were more cooperative, they would encourage such payments. Instead they send these complicated bills implying pay now or we won't see you. So the patients panic.

But the real reason for bankrupcy is not the bills, but the loss of the salary of the sick person, or of the sick person's spouse/daughter etc.

And if you go bankrupt, you don't lose the house/car/farm.

When I was in private practice, a lot of people who had no insurance and Caesarian sections went bankrupt to save their small farms and equipment. Probably the entire bill was abou $12,000, but that was in 1980 dollars, and would be three or four times that amount now.

But when the wife worked, it meant that they lost her income which was needed to pay extra bills.

Answer? Universal catastrophic care, i.e. where bills go over $20000 a year.

But in a world where Medicare covers Viagra, and it is the yuppies, not the hardworking oil workers, who come into my office and demand instant MRI's of their bad backs and arthroscopic surgery of their knees, I don't really support universal care.

Subsidizing insurance for workers, however, and catastrophic coverage is badly needed...