Quote:
Originally Posted by woj
Not sure I buy it, statistics and research can easily by spun to support any viewpoint. Medical expenses may have tipped those families over the edge, but I really don't think they were the root of their problems.
That article doesn't really provide any specifics about the research but look at this one:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6895896/
"Illness and medical bills were cited as the cause, at least in part, for 46.2 percent of the personal bankruptcies in the study."
"Out-of-pocket medical expenses covering co-payments, deductibles and uncovered health services averaged $13,460 for bankruptcy filers who had private insurance at the onset of illness, compared with $10,893 for those without coverage. Those who initially had private coverage but lost it during their illness faced the highest cost, an average of $18,005."
I'm not exactly a baller, but these numbers don't sound THAT high, they are barely a price of a low-end new car. If $15k unexpected expense causes you to go bankrupt, you must have some bigger underlining financial problem, especially considering that hospitals are pretty reasonable about collecting that debt, you just need to send them couple hundred a month and they'll leave you alone...  |
I think the reality of the modern US is that most people live right at the edge of their means. If you have a family of four, a house a couple of cars and the expenses that go with that you are probably still able to live within your means, but you are pushing it. Like someone else says along comes a major illness and you get sued by hospital then the next thing you know you are in deep shit and the house of cards starts tumbling down.
A friend of mine's wife has worked her whole life. About a month ago she was in transition and was moving from one job to the next when she got a pretty serious neck injury. Basically she had bulging disk and had to have an operation. So she never started the new job and was laid up for 8 weeks recovering. She recovers then they realize that it didn't work and have to go back in and fuse the disk. This has her laid up for another 6 weeks. Luckily their health insurance covered it all but when you add in the time recovering and the time she spent getting diagnosed she was out of work for about four months. The loss of her income alone really hurt them. They were able to cover it and skimp by until she started working again, but if they had also had 15-20K in medical bills on top of it they would have been in trouble. They live well within their means and don't even have car payments because they don't want the debt but that illness hurt them.