Medical bills underlie 60% of US bankruptcies

The US researchers reported that medical bills are involved in more than 60 % of US personal bankruptcies, an increase of 50 % in just seven years. According to the data of the team at Harvard Law School, Harvard Medical School and Ohio University, more than 75 % of these bankrupt families had health insurance but still were overwhelmed by their medical debts. “Using a conservative definition, 62.1 % of all bankruptcies in 2008 were medical; 92 % of these medical debtors had medical debts over US$5,000, or 10 % of pretax family income,” the researchers wrote. The researchers said the share of bankruptcies that could be blamed on medical problems rose by 50 % from 2001 to 2008. The United States is embarking on an overhaul of its healthcare system, which is now a patchwork of public programs such as Medicare and employer-sponsored health insurance that leaves 15 % of the population – 46 million people – with no coverage. About 170 million people get health insurance through an employer but President Barack Obama says soaring healthcare costs are hurting the economy and forcing businesses to drop medical insurance for their workers. The researchers surveyed 2,134 random families. While only 29 % directly blamed medical bills for their bankruptcy, 62 % had medical bills that totaled more than 10 % of family income, said an illness was responsible, had lost income due to illness or some other medical factor.