You could have 50,000 in credit card bills and 1005 in medical and they would call it a medical bankruptcy. The Harvard study is bogus.

The second section of Table 2 reports the number of
respondents who had a variety of medical-related problems
such as illness causing a loss of at least 2 weeks of
income, and medical bills in excess of $1000 in the
previous two years. HWTW count these problems as medical related
reasons for bankruptcy even if the respondents did
not state that illness or injury was a reason for
bankruptcy. As a result, HWTW conclude that 54.5 percent
of respondents had medical bankruptcies.

~snip~

Second, Himmelstein agrees that some respondents may have
paid off their medical debts, but he argues that without
medical debts, they would have had more money available to
pay other expenses. He also argues that the level of
medical debt may be understated, as some medical expenses
may have been paid by credit card. The first argument
could be made for all expenditures prior to bankruptcy,
leading to the meaningless conclusion that all expenditures
are responsible for all bankruptcies. The second argument
merely reinforces the fact that since all debts are
fungible, it is inappropriate to single out any one form of
debt as the proximate cause of bankruptcy.

~snip~

This past year, the U.S. Department of Justice responded to
a request by Republican senator Charles Grassley by
examining 5,203 bankruptcy cases from the files of the U.S.
Trustee Program. The DoJ filings occurred between 2000 and
2002, the same time frame as the HWTW filings. The DoJ
reported 90 percent of filers had medical debt of less than
$5,000. Of those reporting medical debts, those debts
accounted for only 13 percent of total unsecured debt.
The DOJ summarizes the evidence against the thesis of the
HWTW article as follows: “The conclusion that almost (cq)
50 percent of consumer bankruptcies are ‘medical related’
requires a broad definition and generally is not
substantiated by the official doc**ents filed by debtors.”
Taking all four surveys under consideration, we observe
that while medical costs have risen sharply over four
decades, medical debt remains a small part of the overall
burden of those filing for bankruptcy.

From here:

http://www.kellogg.northwestern.edu/research/chime/papers/myth_vs_fact.pdf

DAR
Your comments are a bogus caricature of the study. A complete strawman unworthy of consideration.

It is true that there is some subjectivity when considering this issue. Was the bankruptcy caused by the medical bills or other income problems? Also, deciding to file is sometimes a choice to make, or not.
But this extensive study DID take these things into consideration, as best as possible. You OBVIOUSLY haven’t read it and instead, as usual, lean on your usual rightwing nattering nabobs for your misinformation. 6,000 a day is a conservative estimate. It could be more, it might be less. Regardless, it IS an *extraordinary* number that represents a tremendous amount of suffering and it is something that other peer countries do not, comparatively, experience at all.

D.

DAR
What a load. As if people getting hit with a surprise $100k medical bill would suddenly stop going bankrupt if they could have just kept those credit card bills down.

Read the study, learn:

Department of Medicine, Cambridge Hospital/Harvard Medical School, Cambridge, Mass; Department of Sociology, Ohio University, Athens; and Harvard Law School, Cambridge, Mass. –The American Journal of Medicine (2009).

I’ll respond to your other points about bankruptcy above.

D.

DAR
The AMA is a right leaning organization that represents a minority of American doctors.

But you’re wrong anyway:

AMA Endorses House Bill.

D.

The AMA opposes it.

DAR
Canada is hiring more doctors. The ratio has been going up.

BLK: because who wants the hassle of a broken system?>>

DAR
You have it upside down again. You want me to find a poll of what doctors think of the different systems? You will get smoked again, as usual. Support for single payer has been steadily rising among US doctors. Observe:

***
“…a poll published recently [2008] in the Annals of Internal Medicine showing that 59 percent of U.S. doctors support a “single payer” plan that essentially eliminates the central role of private insurers. Most industrial societies — including nations as diverse as Taiwan, France, and Canada — have adopted universal health systems that provide health care to all citizens and permit them free choice of their doctors and hospitals…

The new poll, conducted by Indiana University’s Center for Health Policy and Professionalism Research, shows a sharp 10 percent spike in the number of doctors supporting national insurance: 59 percent in 2007 compared to 49 percent five years earlier. This indicates that more physicians are eager for systematic changes…”

http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=the_doctors_revolt

I am sure Canadian doctors would like some tweaks. I bet the percentage that want to switch to a US style system is tiny.

Regarding the above, it seems they are really tired of haggling with 1,300 insurance companies and being denied the ability to treat patients as they think they need just so a corporation can give a billion dollar golden parachute to a CEO (but I know that sort of thing is really important to you guys).

BLK: This is why most good Canadian Docs come here.>>

DAR
Some Canadian doctors do go to the US (but this trend has been declining), because they can make about twice as much money… as they feed off the bloated US system. The same system that won’t give you health insurance so it can maximize profits and pay it’s doctors about twice as much.

I suppose this irony escapes you.

BLK: “The US has better outcomes”>>

DAR
Well of course, if you compare two similar countries, each country is going to do slightly better than the other country in various categories. That is to be expected and the US has deeper pockets with nearly 10x the population. But it wouldn’t be honest to cherry a couple categories as you do here. Best to have a serious study of the issue. I have already provided this. In the largest systematic study of this, Canada actually came out ahead. Again:

“The most comprehensive study that was ever under taken on the two health care systems.” [was done] “jointly by Harvard University and McMasters University:

Overall, 14 of the 38 studies showed better outcomes in Canada, while only 5 favored the U.S. The remaining 19 studies showed equivalent or mixed results in the two nations. When the studies were combined statistically, the mortality rate was 5% lower in Canada.”

Link

Try again.

D.