Whether you prefer your news on FOX or NPR, there is no denying that the air is thickening around the subject of health care reform in this country. Arguments favoring this tinker or that tamper satisfy some and enrage others. Regardless of what approach people favor, there is one unifying acknowledgement: It is that some meaningful reform must soon be in place before the current system bankrupts our nation.
Bankruptcy is in fact what a growing number of Americans have already encountered through the health care system as it now functions. In June of this year, the American Journal of Medicine released a new study’s findings based on figures available from 2007. The results of this study point out the debilitating role of medical expenses in families and individuals who must file for personal bankruptcy. Labeled as the “first-ever national random sample of bankruptcy filers”, the study’s authors worked hard to maintain conservative controls on their findings and followed the numbers up with fact-finding interviews with a significant portion of the sample’s participants. Research indicated that a staggering 62% of personal bankruptcy filings were disproportionately driven by medically related expenses.
Dr. Steffie Woolhandler, one of the study’s authors, voiced her conclusions in an interview with CNN saying, “Unless you’re a Warren Buffett or Bill Gates, you ‘re one illness away from financial ruin in this country If an illness is long enough and expensive enough, private insurance offers very little protection against medical bankruptcy, and that’s the major finding in our study.” There are those who find Dr. Woolhandler’s words a little radical. A spokesman for the Washington, D.C. based nonpartisan policy research foundation, The Center for Studying Health System Change, admitted some reservations about the findings but at the same time concluded that 1 in 5 American families are “unduly strained” by medical bills.
In the 20 year span from 1981 to 2001, there was a major jump in the percentage of families filing for medically related bankruptcy, a rise from 8% to 46%. The earlier numbers may not have accurately reflected the role of medical bills in the bankruptcy filings, because court records were the means through which the statistics were gathered. Court records do not include the origin of debt that was owed to collection agencies, quite possibly obscuring the role of medical bills. Nevertheless, the American Medical Journal’s most recent 2007 figures of nearly 62% medically related bankruptcy, indicate an unprecedented escalation over a 6 year period. Add that trend to what is still the unknown fallout of our economy’s current recession and we may have some even more frightening revelations.
There is often a common misunderstanding about the majority of individuals who must file for bankruptcy; it is that they are society’s shiftless or hapless members. The AMJ study indicates a profile of personal bankruptcy filers that is quite different from this perception. Most debtors in their random sample were middle aged, among the middle class and had gone to college. 75% of filers did have medical insurance at the outset of their health and debt problems. However, they had the norm of coverage gaps such as co-payments, deductibles and uncovered services. This brings up the unavoidable correlation of how 25% of insurance companies nationwide cancel coverage immediately when an individual suffers a disabling illness and another 25% of insurance companies rescind policies within one year.
If “what is good for the middle class is good for America” is a useful measure of social and economic policy in this country, it is plain to see that viable and visionary health care reform is a mandate. With premiums, deductibles, institutional and procedural costs running on an unchecked course, the system will shortly be unsustainable. This year, 2009, the U.S. is predicted to spend an unprecedented 17.6% of its GDP on health care. What is not taken into account on top of this mind-boggling statistic is the hidden economic and societal costs of medically related personal and small business bankruptcies.
Responsible citizens owe it to themselves to review this American Journal of Medicine study in its entirety and to engage in further health care reform fact finding. A brief online search at amjmed.com (Vol.122, Issue 8, pp. 741 to 746) will get you started. Let your opinions be fully informed and get in touch with your elected representatives. This is an important national subject that requires vision and a patriotic, nonpartisan commitment to our future.
Related Blogs
- Oakland North ยป Healthcare reform rally brings protesters to Lake …
- Medical Debt and Personal Bankruptcy: Time for Reform | The …
