The article by Himmelstein et al in the August 2009 issue of the The American Journal of Medicine documents that health care expenses were the most common cause of bankruptcy in the United States in 2007, accounting for 62% of US bankruptcies compared with 8% in 1981.
Most bankruptcies occurred in middle-class citizens with health insurance, further evidence that our current health care system, based on for-profit, employment-based health insurance, is not working. Millions of Americans have limited access to health care because they cannot afford health insurance. Millions of others, such as those who have to file for bankruptcy because of health care costs, have inadequate health insurance. It is estimated that 1 in 5 Americans goes without health insurance or has inadequate health insurance.
Why is the United States, one of the richest countries in the world, the only major industrial nation that is unable to provide access to health care to all its citizens? Are there any other nations whose citizens have to declare bankruptcy because of health care expenses?
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— James E. Dalen, MD, MPH
This article was originally published in the August 2009 issue of The American Journal of Medicine.
