"Get sick and get out." The travesty of medical foreclosures and bankruptcies

[babylonsister]

Harold Pollack
Posted September 20, 2008 | 04:49 PM (EST)

"Get sick and get out." The travesty of medical foreclosures and bankruptcies


Today's news describes yet another study noting how often illness and medical expenses drive people into financial hardship. Researchers surveyed 128 recently-foreclosed households in four states. They found that medical bills were a factor in 23 percent of home foreclosures. Overall, illness and injury contributed to about half of the foreclosures examined.

These study findings match patterns reported by other bankruptcy researchers: Medical debt is central to the story. This is hardly surprising. Times are hard for everyone. Throw in a chronic illness or an injury that knocks you or your spouse out of work, mix in a $50,000 medical bill, and you've lost the family home.

I encounter many caregivers who live under a constant overhang of financial worry. This is particularly true among parents caring for children with special healthcare needs. These parents know they will shoulder many financial burdens even after they themselves are gone. Most have public or private health coverage. Yet they quickly discover that key services are uncovered. They exhaust visit limits for physical and occupational therapy. They need new equipment. They have copayments and deductibles. Maybe they pay a babysitter for a younger child and then $10 for parking to see some academic medical specialist. It all adds up.

Living near the waterline, parents take night jobs. They cut back on the niceties. They put medical bills on the VISA, take home equity loans, Sometimes, this isn't enough. One prominent advocate for disabled children and their caregivers describes her journey this way:

I became involved with this organization more than 10 years ago, as I cared for my two sons, both of whom were diagnosed about the same time. We scrambled to find services for them, and we quickly found ourselves falling further and further into debt. I became involved in many state boards and other opportunities... What kept me driven is we were not seeing the answers we so desperately needed or were seeking. Hence the passion was not only to find answers for us but for the many other families who were left out there, struggling as we were.

There is another thing I don't talk much about to others. Essentially we were robbing Peter to pay Paul. After balancing and working and balancing some more, I ended up filing medical bankruptcy. We had stuck all of the medical bills on a credit card, and when the interest rates kept going up and up and up I just couldn't do it anymore. What started off as $160 payment ($35,000+ medical bills over 18 months) ended up being $1000 per month ten years later. I never missed a payment or was late for the payment. Of course, nothing much came off the bill in that 10 year time span. But it was down to buying milk and putting it on the table or paying for therapy....

more...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/harold-pollack/get-sick-and-get-out-the_b_127973.html

[cliffordu]

1. Happened to my wife and I. I sold the house before they took it back -

bought an old airstream and went bankrupt.

The only reason we are not homeless.

This was before the bankruptcy law a couple of years ago...

[babylonsister]

3. I've very sorry to hear that, cliffordu; I've read many people

have been ruined financially due to major illnesses, through no fault of their own.

[cliffordu]

4. Thanks - As it turns out being on the outside of the mainstream since we sold out

and got out, we have a simpler, happier life. No kidding.

Of course, I'd like one of those 60" high def televisons sometimes, but won't do it. I'm going to try and ride my bicycle into belize instead.....

C

[PA Democrat]

2. Wall Street execs have been playing a very high stakes game with other people's money.

They have been obscenely well compensated and now that their house of cards is tumbling down, they will get their bailout to prevent a complete meltdown of the system. There will probably be no negative consequences for the people whose greed led us to this point.

Conversely a family who has the bad luck of illness or an injury is cruelly punished for that bad luck.

The whole system needs to be completely changed.

[SammyWinstonJack]

5. This is a very cruel country with lots of cruel people and LOTS of greedy people who don't give a

rat's ass about anyone else.

[madrchsod]

6. filing chapter 13 in the next few months..

over 12,000 and counting in medical bills....i have insurance!

i talked with a bankruptcy attorney and he said biden`s law has ruined a lot of people he has tried to help. his business has been off since the passage and he`s hoping the law will be changed. he hinted that the fall out of the great mortgage disaster is going to cripple the lower and middle class for years to come if there is`t relief...

welcome to america

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

7. get a second opinion,

Lawyers have a personal incentive to push people towards Chapter 13 bankruptcies because they can make more than double what they would make on a Chapter 7 bankruptcy in most circumstances.

The new means test is not nearly as harsh as it is made out to be,