The idea that medical bankruptcy is the leading cause of bankruptcy is a carefully engineered fiction. The claim is normally worded something like "2/3 of bankruptcies are caused by medical bills" and includes a reference to an academic study[0], so it sounds super legit! But not only does the study not support the claim--it clearly contradicts the idea that Medicare For All would improve the situation.
You're probably rolling your eyes right around now, so I'll dispense with the characterizations and move on to the proof.
First of all, here's the actual main takeaway from the study:
> 62.1% of all bankruptcies have a medical cause.
Huh. "having a medical cause" is far from "caused by medical bills", right?. I wonder what "a medical cause" means?
> We included debtors who either
(1) cited illness or injury as a specific reason for bankruptcy (27%), or
(2) reported uncovered medical bills exceeding $1,000 in the past [two] years (27%), or
(3) lost at least two weeks of work-related income because of illness/injury,(27%) or
(4) mortgaged a home to pay medical bills. (2%)
So if I had a $1000 dollar operation two years ago, paid it off, then filed bankruptcy when my small business tanked last month, mine would be a "Medical bankruptcy".
Further down in the article, it gets better:
Only 35% of debtors had medical bills >$5000, while 92% of the 62% ("medical bankruptcies") had medical bills >$5000. But the average net worth for "medical bankruptcies" was -$44,000 (negative $44,000), while the average annual income was $31,000. In other words, these are people who, even in the absence of their medical debt, would almost certainly have been filing for bankruptcy anyway.
BTW--the median income of one of these bankruptcies, in conjunction with their median household size of 2.79, makes it clear that the vast majority of them were be eligible for Medicaid! Would a rebranding of their state-run healthcare leave them any better off?
Why do you think insurance companies are so happy to pay these exorbitant sums to the medical industry?
Like what is there motivation?
Anyone with a brain can see none of this makes sense. You have planted an entire forest of bullshit above that nobody can verify is true or not.
The middle class is being wiped out. Everyone knows this. It's happening from all angles and everyone knows medical bills are one of the main weapons used by the government to do it.
> Why do you think insurance companies are so happy to pay these exorbitant sums to the medical industry?
I have no idea what you're asking.
> Anyone with a brain can see none of this makes sense.
We're in full agreement!
> You have planted an entire forest of bullshit above that nobody can verify is true or not.
If only I'd linked the study!
> The middle class is being wiped out. Everyone knows this.
Yes, with more people moving to the upper class than the lower.[0] And the increase in lower-class households is totally unrelated to the fact that all US population growth is driven by low-skill immigration!
> It's happening from all angles and everyone knows medical bills are one of the main weapons used by the government to do it.
Of course! Democratic governments with consumer-driven economies are notorious for their hatred of the middle class!
Ok well you made me think twice about a few things and I will cede some ground to you and I hope you are right.
I might have a warped view of reality from reading too much of the chans, echo chamber of similar friends etc.
The American Insurance companies paying out $1000 for a pill that costs $20 in Europe in my mind is just the Insurance companies actively enabling a situation where insurance companies are compulsory and a situation where anyone can be bankrupted if these companies refuse to pay the bill
Democratic governments with consumer-driven economies = demon-cratic with manipulated plugged in naive people in satanic-greed-driven economies
US population growth is drven by low-skill immigration = weimar situation is developing all around your house and neighborhoods and soon you will be outnumbered and the economy will collapse taking you down with it
In my mind the USA is an absolute sh*t hole now compared to how it was before the 1970s. Everyone is a wage slave working insane number of hours , both parents are forced to do it and being middle class or upper middle class is as bad as being lower class now. Like dont you have to wage slave just the same and you just get more material possessions which are meaningless ? Is your child hood not spent in a prison like building being forced to do rote memorization ? Are you not angry about that and how it was to condition you to work as a wage slave ?
Isin't a large percentage of the population on drugs , ssris, drinking soma (coffee), binging on food and now incest filled porn tubes, is this all to cope emotionally ?
A self destructive way of living , a slow suicide of the nation ? This is the culture there in my eyes.
Im the type of guy who loves a nice walk in the morning along the beach and then to get working on his hobbies and intellectual interests for the rest of the day in peace. I can fit everything I own in a big briefcase. The way most people live in the USA and what they accept seems insane to me.
You're probably rolling your eyes right around now, so I'll dispense with the characterizations and move on to the proof.
First of all, here's the actual main takeaway from the study:
> 62.1% of all bankruptcies have a medical cause.
Huh. "having a medical cause" is far from "caused by medical bills", right?. I wonder what "a medical cause" means?
> We included debtors who either (1) cited illness or injury as a specific reason for bankruptcy (27%), or (2) reported uncovered medical bills exceeding $1,000 in the past [two] years (27%), or (3) lost at least two weeks of work-related income because of illness/injury,(27%) or (4) mortgaged a home to pay medical bills. (2%)
So if I had a $1000 dollar operation two years ago, paid it off, then filed bankruptcy when my small business tanked last month, mine would be a "Medical bankruptcy".
Further down in the article, it gets better:
Only 35% of debtors had medical bills >$5000, while 92% of the 62% ("medical bankruptcies") had medical bills >$5000. But the average net worth for "medical bankruptcies" was -$44,000 (negative $44,000), while the average annual income was $31,000. In other words, these are people who, even in the absence of their medical debt, would almost certainly have been filing for bankruptcy anyway.
BTW--the median income of one of these bankruptcies, in conjunction with their median household size of 2.79, makes it clear that the vast majority of them were be eligible for Medicaid! Would a rebranding of their state-run healthcare leave them any better off?
[0] https://www.amjmed.com/article/S0002-9343(09)00404-5/fulltex...