Poor Healthy May Lead to Bankruptcy

By Kyle J. Norton

Recent study suggested that poor health with medical bills piled up and lost of income may contribute to bankruptcy declaration.

The results were differentiated by numbers of institutes and published on online financial literature, including Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

According to the study medical expenses account for roughly 4 percent of bankruptcy filings among non elderly adults in the U.S., however, bankruptcy filers for medical reason also accompanied with an estimated loss of over 20% of income or 11 percent drop in employment due to hospitalization, particularly, in adults ages 50 and 59.

These results were clearly stated even with a very comprehensive medical insurance, without including the loss of income insurance, people with poor health sometimes during their life time may have a substantial risk of bankruptcy.

In the joint study conducted by numbers of respectable scientists, using the data from the LIVESTRONG 2012 survey of 4,719 cancer survivors ages 18-64, in investigated the proportions of survivors who reported going into debt or filing for bankruptcy as a result of cancer, as well as the amount of debt incurred indicated that

* Over 30% of survivor had gone into debt with 55 percent incurred obligations of $10,000 or more.

* 3 percent had filed for bankruptcy in compared to 4% in common statistics.

Further analysis, also discovered, cancer survivors who were younger, had lower incomes, and had public health insurance were more likely to go into debt or file for bankruptcy in compared to those who were older, had higher incomes, and had private insurance.

These results one more time indicated the need to have a comprehensive medical insurance and a long time income replacement policy. 

Truly, researchers should also need to take into account of younger adult who can not afford or was not approved of disability insurance due to job related activities.

The differentiation of the above were supported by evaluation conducted by the numbers of instututes professors, including Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston; Danielle Blanch-Hartigan, Bentley University, Waltham.

In a total of 1,202 adult cancer survivors diagnosed or treated at ≥ 18 years of age from the 2011 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey Experiences With Cancer questionnaire. Material financial hardship was measured by ever (1) borrowing money or going into debt, (2) filing for bankruptcy, (3) being unable to cover one’s share of medical care costs, or (4) making other financial sacrifices because of cancer, its treatment, and lasting effects of treatment researchers found that material financial and psychological hardship was more common in cancer survivors age 18 to 64 years than in compared to those ≥ 65 years of age.

Patients of 18 to 64 years must deal with more stressful events, including family to support, mortgage to pay, employment, loss of income in compared to retired population without income to worry.

Moreover, cancer survivors age 18 to 64 years who were younger, female, nonwhite, and treated more recently and who had changed employment because of cancer were significantly more likely to report any material financial hardship.

This result can be easily to interpret as these group of people are most likely to work in the low paying jobs with no insurances, implying cancer survivors who were uninsured, had lower family income, and were treated more recently were more likely to report psychological financial hardship.

Taken together, people who are not insured by a comprehensive package of medical and disability insurance are likely to face psychological and financial hardship and risk of bankruptcy

Sources
(1) How often do medical problems lead to bankruptcy? by Massachusetts Institute of Technology
(2) For Working-Age Cancer Survivors, Medical Debt And Bankruptcy Create Financial Hardships by Banegas MP1, Guy GP Jr2, de Moor JS3, Ekwueme DU4, Virgo KS5, Kent EE6, Nutt S7, Zheng Z8, Rechis R9, Yabroff KR(PubMed)
(3) Financial Hardship Associated With Cancer in the United States: Findings From a Population-Based Sample of Adult Cancer Survivors by Yabroff KR1, Dowling EC2, Guy GP Jr2, Banegas MP2, Davidoff A2, Han X2, Virgo KS2, McNeel TS2, Chawla N2, Blanch-Hartigan D2, Kent EE2, Li C2, Rodriguez JL2, de Moor JS2, Zheng Z2, Jemal A2, Ekwueme DU2(PubMed)