The moral case for health care reform usually cites the number of Americans who are uninsured (nearly 50 million) which contributes to poor health, threatens their financial security, and drains public health resources when they need emergency medicine.
Unfortunately, people who have health insurance don’t seem to be moved by this argument, as is evident by the opposition to meaningful reform in Washington.
But people with health care ought to consider these stunning statistics via MSN Money:
Medical problems caused 62% of all personal bankruptcies filed in the U.S. in 2007, according to a study by Harvard researchers. And in a finding that surprised even the researchers, 78% of those filers had medical insurance at the start of their illnesses, including 60.3% who had private coverage, not Medicare or Medicaid.
People who filed for bankruptcy were “for the most part solidly middle class before medical disaster hit. Two-thirds owned their homes, and three-fifths had gone to college.”
The authors, Drs. David Himmelstein and Steffie Woolhandler of Harvard Medical School, Elizabeth Warren of Harvard Law School and Deborah Thorne, a sociology professor at Ohio University, conclude:
“For middle-class Americans, health insurance offers little protection. Most of us have policies with so many loopholes, co-payments and deductibles that illness can put you in the poorhouse,” said lead author Himmelstein. “Unless you’re Warren Buffett, your family is just one serious illness away from bankruptcy.”
Insurance companies make money by denying you health care and they can do so after you get sick or injured. These companies are the folks the Blue Dog Democrats and Senate “centrists” are trying protect. Only moral corruption explains their allegiance.
This is why strict regulation of the insurance industry and a public option to provide competition is necessary.
