title: Discounting the debtors will not make medical bankruptcy disappear.
abstract: David Dranove and Michael Millenson seem determined to deny that financial fallout from illness pushes middle-class families into bankruptcy. Anxious to erase the headline that three-quarters of U.S. medical bankrupts had health insurance at the onset of their illnesses and the resulting spotlight on inadequate coverage and insurance cancellation practices, they ignore most of our data and misrepresent the rest. They dismiss families' explanations of their difficulties and blame those ruined by illness for their own problems. However, the data from the bankruptcy courts are undeniable. Bankruptcies affect mainly middle-class, privately insured families, and about half are triggered, at least in part, by illnesses.
authors.affiliation: Harvard Medical School, USA. Dhimmelstein@challiance.org
authors.forename: David U
authors.initials: DU
authors.lastname: Himmelstein
authors.forename: Elizabeth
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Warren
authors.forename: Deborah
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Thorne
authors.forename: Steffie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Woolhandler
mesh_terms: D016361:Bankruptcy / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000639:trends*; D002388:Catastrophic Illness / Q000191:economics*; D003627:Data Interpretation, Statistical; D005251:Fees, Medical; D005102:Health Expenditures / Q000639:trends*; D006302:Health Services Research / Q000379:methods; D006801:Humans; D019458:Insurance Coverage; D009310:National Health Insurance, United States; D011203:Poverty; D012923:Social Class; D014481:United States