According to Reuters, 62.1 percent of all United States bankruptcies are a result of medical bills in 2007. "Most medical debtors were well-educated, owned homes and had middle-class occupations." In most of the cases, serious illness strikes a family member and even with medical coverage, out of pocket expenses surpass 10 percent of before tax family income.

 

The article (June 3, 2009) by Maggie Fox, Reuters Health and Science editor, cites research done by Harvard Law, Harvard Medical and Ohio University. Over 2,100 random families that filed for bankruptcy were interviewed and public bankruptcy court records were utilized in the study, which was funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

 

Harvard’s Dr. David Himmelstein stated that, “Unless you’re Warren Buffett, your family is just one serious illness away from bankruptcy”.  He added, “For middle-class Americans, health insurance offers little protection.” Dr. Himmelstein is an advocate for a single-payer health insurance program for the United States.

 

The diagnoses with highest out-of-pocket expenses were nonstroke neurologic illnesses like multiple sclerosis, followed by diabetes, injuries, stroke, mental illness and heart disease in descending order of mean expenditure ranging from $34,167 to $21,955. The report continues by stating that many insurers cancel coverage shortly after an insured suffers a disabling illness.

 

This report presents a bleak picture of the long-term outlook for someone with a major illness. We as healthcare professionals realize that prevention and healthy lifestyles are better than any insurance but we also know that few can afford major medical expenses, particularly long hospital stays. Healthcare for all sounds great, but I’ve had a Google Alert for at least three years that directs me to universal healthcare news and I have yet to see any plan that would truly be affordable without having terribly substandard care.

 

Perhaps our thinking is skewed because of the influence of traditional models of health insurance. The thinking is, “I have insurance, they will take care of me” so prevention for many individuals is not a reality. If you were riding a motorcycle on a dirt track in Buda you might take some chances with bigger jumps than you might if you were doing the same thing in a third-world country where the nearest hospital is over 100 miles away. That is the sense of security we as Americans have taken for granted for many years. It might be time for everyone to take responsibility for themselves for routine and minor health expenses, with tax deductions for those expenses, and devise a national pool where everyone has the opportunity to pay a reasonable premium that covers only major illness that no individual could ever cover. I am willing to bet that folks would take more interest in prevention if this were the case.