Comments on: More people confident they can pay medical bills http://csbj.com/2009/09/01/more-people-confident-they-can-pay-medical-bills/ Wed, 22 May 2013 02:51:20 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1 By: Matt http://csbj.com/2009/09/01/more-people-confident-they-can-pay-medical-bills/comment-page-1/#comment-6240 Matt Tue, 01 Sep 2009 20:24:18 +0000 http://csbj.com/?p=7389#comment-6240 Funny how people that never have to use their health insurance for major illness think that our healthcare system works just fine. Interestingly, a Harvard study in 2005 found that medical bills are the leading cause of bankruptcy in the US. From that study:

Illness and medical bills caused half of the 1,458,000 personal bankruptcies in 2001, according to a study published by the journal Health Affairs.

The study estimates that medical bankruptcies affect about 2 million Americans annually — counting debtors and their dependents, including about 700,000 children.

Surprisingly, most of those bankrupted by illness had health insurance. More than three-quarters were insured at the start of the bankrupting illness. However, 38 percent had lost coverage at least temporarily by the time they filed for bankruptcy.

Read more: http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2005/bankruptcy_study.html#ixzz0Pt8ipESo

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