by We need a fair and sustainable national healthcare system in the United States. People are suffering while insurance companies, hospitals, and other animated fat cats reap the benefits from the weak and infirm while the families of the sick line up for bankruptcy court.
Here’s the hardcore research that proves a need for a fair system of health — because our current system is bankrupting us:
Woolhandler and her co-authors at the Harvard Medical School, Harvard Law School and Ohio University recently published a study in the American Journal of Medicine that shows nearly two-thirds of all personal bankruptcies in 2007 were linked to medical bills or illness. The authors further note that most of those who filed for bankruptcy were middle-class and had health insurance when they became sick. Between 2001 and 2007, the proportion of all bankruptcies attributable to medical problems rose by 50 percent.
Being healthy should be a necessary inalienable right for all Americans and we must come together as one to demand our fair share of longevity, heartiness and full-body competency.
No American should have to file for bankruptcy protection from the medical profession ever again.
Too true, David. I know of people who just skip routine checkups because they don’t have the extra money and then because of that more serious problems develop.
I can remember, Gordon, a time not too long ago when our health insurance co-pay was $3 and yearly physicals were free. Now we pay $20 per visit and if anything special is done beyond the doctor, we get charged for those things as well. It’s a vicious circle that presses you away from preventative care.