Item — HN Reader

>Many people with money but without insurance do go and get b*tch slapped later by their ~$10k-$200k medical bill. It’s a reason why medical debt is the LEADING cause of bankruptcy in the US.

Only 4% of US bankruptcies are because of medical bills https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-partisan/wp/2018/0... . A tipoff that [insert large percentage here] of bankruptcies aren't actually because of medical costs is that only 6% of bankruptcies by those without health insurance are because of that cause. The biggest cause of bankruptcies is lack of income, which health insurance doesn't affect.

1 comments

My citation says 66% of US Bankruptcies are tied to medical issues. Which of our citations is right?

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.cnbc.com/amp/2019/02/11/thi...

You’re quite clever in saying that bankruptcies are caused by lack of income. I suppose more income would solve 100% of bankruptcies lol

>My citation says 66% of US Bankruptcies are tied to medical issues.

Your citation says

>A new study from academic researchers found that 66.5 percent of all bankruptcies were tied to medical issues —either because of high costs for care or time out of work.

(My emphasis.) In other words, people going bankrupt because health problems = lack of work = lack of income. That does not contradict my citation which states that 4% of US bankruptcies are because of medical bills; that is, bills for health care treatment exceeding available income.

Your article goes on to quote a study author who carefully elides the difference between the two. Oh, by the way, he is a prominent proponent of Medicare for All! Imagine that.