62.1% of All Bankruptcies in 2007 Tied To Medical Bills

Social security was suppose to be a savings plan so people would put aside some of their earnings to be used later when they retired.

There are many people who need help from time to time in their lives such as you've described but it should not be the responsibility of the federal government to handle all these cases with our money. It is very painful to see, much less experience, the needs that some people have. However, it should be - can best be - handled locally by people - family, friends, community, charity, church - that can monitor what's really happening with their money and give help to those who really need it for the time they really need it and in the amount they really need.

What happens when charity is administered by far away bureaucrats with political motives is obvious from the corruption, waste, and abuse that we've seen from systems like social security. It becomes an entitlement - a right - with no real accountability to those that actually provide it.

 

I can't speak for the bankruptcies of 2007, but I can speak for mine in 1990. It was caused solely by medial bills. Between my wife and our premature son the out-of-pocket and uncovered expenses were close to $100,000. This was all one ongoing situation with my wife spending over two months in the hospital with all but about three days were spent in the labor and delivery ward ($$$). Yes, I had insurance. It wasn't the best insurance, but it was what my employer had for us employees.

The ironic part id that, when we went before the judge, the hospital didn't even show up and so their debt was erased. They had been calling us several times a day, threatening us before we filed, and yet they didn't even bother to be there to get their money.

Were something like that to happen to us right now I would split my time between the hospital and packing our stuff because I know we would lose the house. Everything else we own is paid for already. I also know that we would be forced into bankruptcy because of it.

 

As someone who interacts with the bankruptcy system on a daily basis, I can tell you there is a lot of truth and wisdom in this post.

 

If you think that will change dramatically with Obamacare, you are sadly mistaken.

 

Absolutely not!!!!!!

>Social security was suppose to be a savings plan so people would put aside some of their earnings to be used later when they retired.

ABSOLUTELY NOT!!!!!!!

As the legislation was written and implemented. SS was a universal welfare plan and a capped flat income tax

 

Here is the example that scares me with your system. How can someone, who has an insurance, be put in such an awful situation, and loose so much money ? I don't understand how, with such an example of a brother in such a situation, one can say everything's alright with the system right now.

 

Note that in this case the person's debt to the hospital for services provided was canceled by the bankruptcy process. Again, this was a bad situation but there was a resolution through the process already in place. The federal government didn't need to do anything. Life is full of experiences that can bring disaster to a family but they don't all need to be handled by some grand program from Washington. Yes, we are our "brother's keeper" but that can be accomplished in many much more effective ways than a cumbersome universal health care system ripe with opportunity for corruption, abuse, waste, and further loss of freedom. We should do the right things to help people in need at the local level. That has worked for centuries and it still can.

 

Many years ago when a dollar was worth something and we had no medical insurance because I worked for a small company, our youngest son required frequent hospitalization and two surgeries. We ended up close to $15,000 in debt (we were grossing around 20k a year at the time). I went to Consumer Credit Counseling Service and we were able to work out payment plans with everyone and to years later we were debt-free.

It can be done without Uncle Sam's help. Obamacare will be just another entitlement program for the unmotivated.

 

Well that's the problem, the 'facts' in your cited study are not facts at all.

Dranove and Millensin's original review is gated. You can read their final response to the Himmelstein study here.

In part: "In responding to our study, David Himmelstein and colleagues state that we seem determined to deny that financial fallout from illness pushes middle-class families into bankruptcy. This is simply untrue. Our paper denies neither the presence of medical bankruptcies nor their serious impact on families... They continue to offer only one direct causal measure: namely, that medical bills "contribute" to 17 percent of personal bankruptcies. The remaining anecdotes and correlations they offer do not constitute systematic empirical research, and they do not establish causation.".

 

IOW
The annecdotal evidence is nothing less than Fearmongering.

 

And social engineering masquerading as science.

 

You are right, brother. This will just be federal medical welfare, pure and simple.

 

I found out an interesting study. I didn't know USA spent more money than other countries (thought they were spending less).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:International_Comparison_-_Healthcare_spending_as_%_GDP.png

http://www.rwjf.org/files/research/qualityquickstrikeaug2009.pdf

 

And?.........

 

And i thought all the matter with a " public " and global healthcare system was a matter of wasting money reaching the cost of the nations who have such a system. But i realized you were already spending more with a privatized system.

Then I'm not sure about what's going wrong : many (in numbers of people) are not covered, it costs more than anywhere else in the world, and globally, the quality of health isn't better than in other G8 countries.

I'm just wondering where things are wrong and what should be improved.

 

Untrue. Not when you add in the increased tax burden of the public system.

Besides being cheaper, the other benefits of our private system are choice, personal control, access (expecially for the elderly) and higher quality of care.

 

1. People abuse the insurance system and use it for every little sniffle under the sun.
2. There is a lack of competition because there are only a few companies in each state.
3. People who want big windfalls look for reasons to sue doctors and hospitals.
4. Doctors practice self preservation and defensive medicine running many unnecessary tests on patients to keep from being sued.
5. Millions of illegals flooding the country

All these run costs up but the far left does not want to address these issues. They just ignore the real problems and use tactics that work to make people dependent and give them more power.