Harold Pollack
Posted September 20, 2008 | 04:49 PM (EST)
"Get sick and get out." The travesty of medical foreclosures and bankruptcies
Today's news describes yet another study noting how often illness and medical expenses drive people into financial hardship. Researchers surveyed 128 recently-foreclosed households in four states. They found that medical bills were a factor in 23 percent of home foreclosures. Overall, illness and injury contributed to about half of the foreclosures examined.
These study findings match patterns reported by other bankruptcy researchers: Medical debt is central to the story. This is hardly surprising.
Times are hard for everyone. Throw in a chronic illness or an injury that knocks you or your spouse out of work, mix in a $50,000 medical bill, and you've lost the family home.I encounter many caregivers who live under a constant overhang of financial worry. This is particularly true among parents caring for children with special healthcare needs. These parents know they will shoulder many financial burdens even after they themselves are gone. Most have public or private health coverage. Yet they quickly discover that key services are uncovered. They exhaust visit limits for physical and occupational therapy. They need new equipment. They have copayments and deductibles. Maybe they pay a babysitter for a younger child and then $10 for parking to see some academic medical specialist. It all adds up.
Living near the waterline, parents take night jobs. They cut back on the niceties. They put medical bills on the VISA, take home equity loans, Sometimes, this isn't enough. One prominent advocate for disabled children and their caregivers describes her journey this way:
I became involved with this organization more than 10 years ago, as I cared for my two sons, both of whom were diagnosed about the same time. We scrambled to find services for them, and we quickly found ourselves falling further and further into debt. I became involved in many state boards and other opportunities... What kept me driven is we were not seeing the answers we so desperately needed or were seeking. Hence the passion was not only to find answers for us but for the many other families who were left out there, struggling as we were.
There is another thing I don't talk much about to others. Essentially we were robbing Peter to pay Paul. After balancing and working and balancing some more, I ended up filing medical bankruptcy. We had stuck all of the medical bills on a credit card, and when the interest rates kept going up and up and up I just couldn't do it anymore. What started off as $160 payment ($35,000+ medical bills over 18 months) ended up being $1000 per month ten years later. I never missed a payment or was late for the payment. Of course, nothing much came off the bill in that 10 year time span. But it was down to buying milk and putting it on the table or paying for therapy....
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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/harold-pollack/get-sick-and-get-out-the_b_127973.html