Harvard study: Massachusetts reform hasn't stopped medical bankruptcies:

[eridani]

http://www.pnhp.org/sites/default/files/docs/2011/AJM_Mass-Reform-hasnt-stopped-med-bankruptcies.pdf

The percentage of personal bankruptcies linked to medical bills or illness changed little, and the absolute number actually increased in Massachusetts after the implementation of its landmark 2006 law requiring people to buy health insurance, a Harvard study says.

The new study, which appears in today’s American Journal of Medicine, found that between early 2007 and mid-2009, the share of all Massachusetts bankruptcies with a medical cause went from 59.3 percent to 52.9 percent, a non-significant decrease of 6.4 percentage points. Because there was a sharp rise in total bankruptcies during that period, the actual number of medical bankruptcy filings in the state rose from 7,504 in 2007 to 10,093 in 2009.

The findings have national implications because the Obama administration’s health law is largely patterned after the Massachusetts plan, including its individual mandate. One of the administration’s arguments in support of the new federal law was that it would significantly reduce medical bankruptcies nationwide. The findings in Massachusetts cast doubt on that claim.

To explain why medical bankruptcies persist in Massachusetts, the authors of the new study write: “Health costs in the state have risen sharply since reform was enacted. Even before the changes in health care laws, most medical bankruptcies in Massachusetts – as in other states – afflicted middle-class families with health insurance. High premium costs and gaps in coverage – co-payments, deductibles and uncovered services – often left insured families liable for substantial out-of-pocket costs. None of that changed. For example, under Massachusetts’ reform, the least expensive individual coverage available to a 56-year-old Bostonian carries a premium of $5,616, a deductible of $2,000, and covers only 80 percent of the next $15,000 in costs for covered services.”

[Hannah Bell]

dupe.

[Hannah Bell]

1. kr. that would be $10,000 out of pocket if you used services up to $15K.

$5616 on the premium, $2000 on the deductible, & another $3K on the uncovered 20%.

WHAT A GREAT DEAL!

people who actually need the medical care go bankrupt while those who don't need it pay through the ass -- $468 a month for an individual premium when median income for a single is somewhere in the neighborhood of $30K. So about 20% of median income for a policy that won't cover a huge chunk of the cost if you get sick.

who benefits?

[leftstreet]

2. K&R Interesting how 'medical bankruptcy' has become a term

Especially since there's no such thing

K&R

[jtrockville]

3. "Medical Bankruptcies" are Uniquely American

In developed nations, there's no such thing as a "medical bankruptcy".

[Overseas]

4. K&R and uh oh...

Darn facts interfere with "wonderful victory."

[progressoid]

5. CONCLUSIONS

CONCLUSIONS
The recently enacted national health reform law closely
mirrors Massachusetts’ reform. That reform expanded the
number of people with insurance but did little to upgrade
existing coverage or reduce costs, leaving many of the
insured with inadequate financial protection. Our data do
not suggest that health care reform cannot sharply reduce
the number of medical bankruptcies. Indeed, medical bankruptcy
rates appear lower in Canada,19 where national
health insurance provides universal, first dollar coverage.
Instead, these data suggest that reducing medical bankruptcy
rates in the United States will require substantially
improved—not just expanded—insurance, as well as better
disability insurance programs to provide income support to
ill individuals and family caregivers.