title: The relationship between medical care costs and personal bankruptcy.
abstract: The number of personal bankruptcy filings has broken records over the last few years. Filings for nonbusiness bankruptcy protection totaled 1,650,279 in 2003, an increase of 9.6 percent between the years 2002 and 2003. This article examines the relationship in the United States between personal bankruptcy filings, and medical care costs and coverage. There seems to be a positive, statistically significant relationship between medical care costs and nonbusiness bankruptcy numbers; however, medical care coverage has limited or no explanatory value as a factor explaining total nonbusiness bankruptcy filings. The regression models suggest a weak or no relationship between the number of nonbusiness bankruptcy filings and health insurance coverage.
authors.affiliation: Kennesaw State University, Marietta, Georgia, USA.
authors.forename: Billie Ann
authors.initials: BA
authors.lastname: Brotman
mesh_terms: D016361:Bankruptcy; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005102:Health Expenditures; D006801:Humans; D019458:Insurance Coverage / Q000191:economics / Q000639:trends; D007348:Insurance, Health / Q000191:economics; D012044:Regression Analysis; D014481:United States