Health Care Stories

I'm assuming Kucinich is basing this on the ridiculously overbroad Health Affairs study from a few years back that used bankruptcy filings in 2001. Even that only goes up to 54.5%.

It is based on survey of ~1800 with follow-up interviews for half. Their definition includes illness or injury, birth and adoption, death in the family, drug/alcohol addiction, and gambling. That does not mean medical bills resulting from those events, but the events themselves.

If I gamble away my savings and have to file for bankruptcy, that counts as a medical bankruptcy. If my spouse dies and I have to file for bankruptcy because I can't afford the mortgage alone, that's a medical bankruptcy.

They also do not take into account how large unpaid medical bills are in comparison to the rest of the filers debt, they only asked if they had more than $1000 in unpaid medical bills in the 2 years before filing. If they had $50,000 in credit card debt and $2,000 in medical debt, the study still counts that as a medical bankruptcy.

Report: 58K Utahns will lose insurance by 2010

Mougar wrote: I'm assuming Kucinich is basing this on the ridiculously overbroad Health Affairs study from a few years back that used bankruptcy filings in 2001. Even that only goes up to 54.5%.

It is based on survey of ~1800 with follow-up interviews for half. Their definition includes illness or injury, birth and adoption, death in the family, drug/alcohol addiction, and gambling. That does not mean medical bills resulting from those events, but the events themselves.

If I gamble away my savings and have to file for bankruptcy, that counts as a medical bankruptcy. If my spouse dies and I have to file for bankruptcy because I can't afford the mortgage alone, that's a medical bankruptcy.

They also do not take into account how large unpaid medical bills are in comparison to the rest of the filers debt, they only asked if they had more than $1000 in unpaid medical bills in the 2 years before filing. If they had $50,000 in credit card debt and $2,000 in medical debt, the study still counts that as a medical bankruptcy.

good points. here is factcheck.org on a similar study
http://www.factcheck.org/askfactcheck/what_is_the_percentage_of_total_personal.html

Indeed, it's the same study.

so, a lot of the folks who are declared bankrupt ended up in that situation as a result of health costs. ...but not as many as politicians claim. Got it.

Perhaps the real question is: Should people have to lose their life savings (and have ruined credit for life) as a result of not having health insurance? ..or having inadequate health insurance?

If the answer is "No", what do we do to prevent it?

whynot_31 wrote: so, a lot of the folks who are declared bankrupt ended up in that situation as a result of health costs. ...but not as many as politicians claim. Got it.

Perhaps the real question is: Should people have to lose their life savings (and have ruined credit for life) as a result of not having health insurance? ..or having inadequate health insurance?

If the answer is "No", what do we do to prevent it?

To hell with the big picture, I'd rather quibble about details. With details there usually is a right answer, or at least clearly wrong ones that you can pick apart. Less so with broader policy.

ok, so how about predictions ....those are easy.

Does anyone predict that the Dems will actually pull it off and soak the rich for the cost of health care?

(note, whether the rich should be soaked is a different question)

I wish the Dems were trying to soak the rich.