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The truth about medical bankruptcies
Washington Post ^ | March 26, 2018 | Megan McArdle

Posted on 03/26/2018 7:19:17 AM PDT by reaganaut1

Pop quiz: What percentage of bankruptcies in the United States are caused by medical bills?

If you lived through the debate over passing Obamacare, you probably answered something like “half.” That was the figure in common currency among advocates of health-care reform; then-Sens. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) and Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) were just two of the prominent advocates who used it. Other variants were also popular; Barack Obama, for example, was fond of saying that “the cost of health care now causes a bankruptcy in America every 30 seconds.”

It’s a memorable number. But it’s almost certainly many times the true count.

The figure was based on a series of papers released by a team including Sen. Elizabeth Warren (then a professor at Harvard Law School) and co-authors David Himmelstein and Stephanie Woolhandler of Physicians for a National Health Program. Theirs was hardly the only paper to attempt an estimate of medical bankruptcies, but no one else got eye-popping numbers like that — or nearly so much attention from the media.

Critics at the time, including me, pointed out that there were all sorts of problems with the data, but none of the critiques had the viral charms of the original study. But behind the scenes, the debate has continued. And last week, the New England Journal of Medicine published a new estimate done by a team of health and labor economists.

...

The answer they came up with will surprise even critics of Warren et al.: The fraction of bankruptcies caused by medical events is just 4 percent. And even among those bankruptcies, it seems that medical bills may be less of a problem than the other things associated with an illness, such as lost labor income.

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Editorial; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: bankruptcies; elizabethwarren; healthinsurance; obamacare
The paper is "Myth and Measurement — The Case of Medical Bankruptcies". I'm not surprised that Elizabeth Warren, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton have been misleading about this.
1 posted on 03/26/2018 7:19:18 AM PDT by reaganaut1
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To: reaganaut1

Please don’t tell me the fake Indian knowingly published a lie.


2 posted on 03/26/2018 7:22:08 AM PDT by Moonman62 (Make America Great Again!)
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To: Moonman62

and the Obama repeating the same lie over and over again.


3 posted on 03/26/2018 7:39:18 AM PDT by nobamanomore
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To: reaganaut1

When I was doing consumer bankruptcy in the last couple of decades before the bankruptcy law changed I estimated that medical bills were number 3 on the list of why people filed bankruptcy.


4 posted on 03/26/2018 7:40:14 AM PDT by Controlling Legal Authority (Author of "Are You Ready to Adopt?")
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To: reaganaut1

The more bold the lie, the more believable the lie is...................


5 posted on 03/26/2018 7:40:22 AM PDT by Red Badger (The people who call Trump a tyrant are the same people who want the president to confiscate weapons.)
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To: Moonman62

Please don’t tell me the fake Indian knowingly published a lie.


It wasn’t a lie. It was just fake. :)


6 posted on 03/26/2018 7:41:21 AM PDT by robroys woman (So you're not confused, I'm using my wife's account.)
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To: reaganaut1

Looks like bankruptcies really just follow the business cycle - surprise surprise


7 posted on 03/26/2018 7:41:26 AM PDT by AndyJackson
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To: reaganaut1

My little bear had a very difficult pregnancy and birth.

Wife was on bed rest for four month, little bear was in the NICU for 71 days.

I won’t post what it cost out of pocket for me, but I took a loan from my 401K to cover it. Most of the cost was from bills not directly related to the medical bills.

I didn’t go bankrupt, but it destroyed a lot of my savings. Had little choice, as the interest would have led to bankruptcy and loss of that anyway.

In short, I agree with the article to a point. It isn’t the hospital bills, but the other stuff that gets you.


8 posted on 03/26/2018 7:45:04 AM PDT by redgolum
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To: Moonman62

Liawatha


9 posted on 03/26/2018 7:45:11 AM PDT by pas
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To: reaganaut1
We knew all along that this "statistic" was BS. Glad someone has finally come clean on it.

WaPo no less.

10 posted on 03/26/2018 7:52:29 AM PDT by hinckley buzzard
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To: reaganaut1

To quote myself:

“The percent of households without health insurance does not appear to have much of an effect on total personal bankruptcy filings. A 1 percentage point higher rate of uninsured may increase personal bankruptcy filings by 0.02 percentage points, but the effect is only significant in one of the two specifications. This finding is consistent with other regression-based
studies of bankruptcy, which obtain small and marginally-significant impacts. This finding seems to be contradicted by surveys of bankruptcy filers indicating that as many as half of bankruptcies are ‘medical bankruptcies’ (e.g., Himmelstein et al. 2005, 2009; Warren et al. 2000).”

Journal of Gambling Studies (2011) 27:145–154 (the focus of the study was the impact of legal gambling on bankruptcy, but the model included other possible factors such as lack of health insurance)

PS The Warren referred to in the quotation is sometimes referred to as Pocahontas.


11 posted on 03/26/2018 8:02:40 AM PDT by Redmen4ever (u)
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To: reaganaut1
All I can say about 'medical bankruptcies' is this:

Before Obamacare got shoved down everyone's throats, I was doing fine finacially, even with two pre-existing conditions.

Since Obamacare, my premiums have tripled and my deductible has quadrupled. The extra amount alone could have financed a second house.

12 posted on 03/26/2018 8:19:43 AM PDT by Joe Brower (Nothing is more terrifying than ignorance in action. Particulary when that ignorance is cultivated.)
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To: pas

She definitely speaks with forked tongue!


13 posted on 03/26/2018 8:24:37 AM PDT by MissEdie (I am South Carolina Strong.)
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To: robroys woman

It wasn't a Lie. It was Fake Truth.

14 posted on 03/26/2018 8:26:00 AM PDT by grayeagle
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To: reaganaut1

Dan Rather said “ Fake but ...


15 posted on 03/26/2018 8:35:47 AM PDT by cutty
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To: Joe Brower
Remember the ObaMao quote that those who were lucky in the genetics lottery and didn't get sick needed to contribute to those who weren't so lucky? Once you drilled down into that statement, what he really meant is that those of us who refrained from sticking drugs up our nose or were able to drink in moderation or not at all needed to subsidize the substance abusers.

It is no coincidence that substance abuse and all the costs associated with it have gone through the roof ever since ObaMaoCare was enacted to subsidize said lifestyle.

16 posted on 03/26/2018 8:52:54 AM PDT by Vigilanteman (ObaMao: Fake America, Fake Messiah, Fake Black man. How many fakes can you fit into one Zer0?)
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To: reaganaut1

Elizabeth Warren was a bankruptcy professor so she obviously knew better. By the way, I am a bankruptcy lawyer and I can tell you it’s no where near 50%.


17 posted on 03/26/2018 4:50:30 PM PDT by Brilliant
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To: Joe Brower

I think the deductible side of this discussion will be the final stumbling block. Might take five to seven years, but I think the average guy will just say that he can’t cover the yearly deductible anymore, without it bringing him or his family into serious financial issues. At that point, single-payer Medicare-like insurance will be the only solution left. Marginalized care will have arrived and people will wonder how we stumbled into this pit.


18 posted on 03/26/2018 6:09:34 PM PDT by pepsionice
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To: pepsionice

“but I think the average guy will just say that he can’t cover the yearly deductible anymore, without it bringing him or his family into serious financial issues.“

Clan Lurker, family of 3.

Monthly premium for a PPO: $1,452.00 monthly.
Annual Deductible: $12,000.00

For us that day is here.

L


19 posted on 03/27/2018 9:13:37 AM PDT by Lurker (President Trump isn't our last chance. President Trump is THEIR last chance.)
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To: Controlling Legal Authority

I made 2 ER trips in Feb, just getting in the door was $5K each, 2 CT’S, Blood work, Phenergan and Dilaudid at reduced dose those bills haven’t come in yet, nor the Heart Monitoring for the last 1.

That didn’t include the 3 doc visits, 2 MRI’s, Barium X-ray and Bacterial Breath Test for SIBO. All because a UNDEREDUCATED APN would not refill my Neuropathy medication for fear of losing her license as she is to uninformed to know the difference between Guidelines and Laws, and State Laws. SIBO is not clearing, so another GASTRO trip is going to be necessary.

I’d say we were approaching $60K if not more. That would bankrupt us if we didn’t have Medicare/Tricare Life.


20 posted on 03/27/2018 10:18:51 AM PDT by GailA (Ret. SCPO wife: suck it up buttercups it's President Donald Trump!)
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