Health or Money: The Choice is Yours
In this week’s issue, the Free Times quotes Commissioner Sue Berkowitz speaking about health care, insurance and the effect of facing medical bills without insurance:
Forty-six million Americans, including 750,000 South Carolinians, are going uninsured,” Sue Berkowitz, director of the South Carolina Appleseed Legal Justice Center, said in kicking off the forum.study, Berkowitz said that 50 percent of personal bankruptcies in the nation stem from medical bills.
Many more are underinsured, and the numbers of people in both categories have been increasing for years.
At the same time, health care costs have been spiraling out of control for just as long and exacting a crushing toll on household and business finances. Citing a
That’s a staggering figure – 50% of personal bankruptcies in the United States stem from medical bills!
Click here to read the full article.
-RFW
didnt know about this, good thing i live in canada, health care is free. i feel bad for my fellow americans.
The link to the national study on medical cost leading to bankruptcy leads to a subscription site.
Fortunately, the study is available on the Physicians for a National Health Program website here:
http://www.pnhp.org/new_bankruptcy_study/Bankruptcy-2009.pdf
Dr. Steffie Woolhandler, MD, MPHa, a co-author of the report also recently spoke before a congressional committee on single payer health care. You can read her testimony here: http://energycommerce.house.gov/Press_111/20090624/testimony_woolhandler.pdf