General Health

New Study: Bankruptcy Tied To Medical Bills.
Of those who filed for bankruptcy in 2007, nearly 80 percent had health insurance. Respondents who reported having insurance indicated average expenses of just under $18,000. Respondents who filed and lacked insurance had average medical bills of nearly $27,000.

Since 2007, the number of Americans without insurance has increased and filing for bankruptcy has become more difficult due to more stringent laws, according to the report.

The authors of the study, David Himmelstein, Deborah Thorne, Elizabeth Warren and Steffie Woolhandler, say their findings ‘reflect the U.S. health care financing system is broken.’ Middle class families, they conclude, ‘frequently collapse under the strain of the health care system that treats physical wounds, but inflicts fiscal ones.’

- Read the report.more