-----Original Message-----
From: Equity, Health & Human  Development
[mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of Ruggiero, Mrs.  Ana Lucia
(WDC)



Medical  Bankrupcy: The Debate Continues



February  28, 2006-  Health  Affairs, 10.1377/hlthaff.25.w74


Medical Bankruptcy: Myth Versus  Fact

This  response to a widely cited paper by David Himmelstein and colleagues
challenges  the basis of its conclusions.

David  Dranove and Michael L. Millenson
http://content.healthaffairs.org/cgi/content/full/hlthaff.25.w74/DC1



“…..David  Himmelstein and colleagues recently contended that medical
problems contribute  to 54.5 percent of personal bankruptcies and threaten
the solvency of solidly  middle-class Americans. They propose comprehensive
national health insurance as  a solution. A reexamination of their data
suggests that medical bills are a  contributing factor in just 17 percent
of personal bankruptcies and that those  affected tend to have incomes
closer to poverty level than to middle class.  Moreover, for national
health insurance to have an impact, it would have to  define “medical”
expenses in a much broader way than is now typical of either  private or
government-funded plans….…”



Bankruptcy  Is The Tip Of A Medical-Debt Iceberg

Robert W. Seifert   Mark Rukavina
http://content.healthaffairs.org/cgi/content/full/hlthaff.25.w89/DC1



Discounting  The Debtors Will Not Make Medical Bankruptcy Disappear

David  U. Himmelstein, Elizabeth Warren, Deborah Thorne, Steffie
Woolhandler
http://content.healthaffairs.org/cgi/content/full/hlthaff.25.w84/DC1



Medical  Bankruptcy

David Dranove   Michael L. Millenson
http://content.healthaffairs.org/cgi/content/full/hlthaff.25.w93/DC1





Related  articles:

- D.U.  Himmelstein et al., “Illness and Injury as  Contributors to
Bankruptcy,”Health Affairs 24 (2005):  w63–w73 (published online 2 February
2005;  10.1377/hlthaff.w5.63).

-  California Healthline summary of news coverage and the Commonwealth Fund
Issue  Brief of August 2005 summary of research,

http://www.californiahealthline.org/index.cfm?Action=dspItem&itemID=108808
.