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Strange Brew eh wrote:

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usajb wrote:

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1. So these young healthy avoiding dangerous behavior people wrap themselves in bubble wrap, breathe pure sanitized air and stay in a storm cellar?  They never get cancer or illness'?  They never go any place in a car?

2. Currently, when a uninsured person gets treated and can't pay for it, who does pay for it?  US tax payers and increased insurance rates.

3. So who pays for it currently? US Taxpayer and our increased insurance rates

Finally:  I read on one site 42% of all personal bankruptcies are due to medical expenses. So $15000/yr/person. Expenses are expected to decrease with increased preventive medicine (catching major problems earlier enabling cheaper treatment before the problem gets much worse). Indeed, your middle name must be nuanced.

Your cite of 42% is incorrect.  The misleading statistic comes from surveys of BK where they ask what kind of debts you have.  Most have some medical debts or higher than planned medical expenses.  It doesn't mean it was the primary reason.  

In fact, in almost every age bracket the average citizen spends more on eating out and activities such as concerts, movies than they do on HealthCare.  

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Personally, I don't like the idea of gov't forcing one to buy health insurance of face a fine from the IRS.  However I understand and acknowledge that they do the same for other things such as car insurance (state level) but there is no penalty from gov't for not having it.  I think this should be a state-by state issue and I think it takes away personal choices.  

I really don't like two parts of this however.

1.  This does nothing to lower the cost.  Insurance is a way to pool risk, the total dollars stay the same.  So in essence the healthy will contribute more to pay for the injured.  People who claim that there are saving by a national system need to look at history.  From 2001-05 Healthcare costs increased similar to countries such as Canada, Netherlands, etc.  They just started from a lower point.  

2.  There should be varying levels of policies available not just one level.  Young people would be better off paying on a per go basis with a high deductable covering catastrophic issues, etc.

Costs will not reduce unless you and I as policyholders have skin in the game.  Breaking the link between employment and health coverage is good.  The rest not so much.

My favorite articles.
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2009/09/how-american-health-care-killed-my-father/7617/ 

A good blog post about the article.
http://ethanprater.com/uncommon-thoughts-on-health-care-financing-in-the-usa/

An article about my preferred choice, personal HSAs (skin in the game).
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704231304575091600470293066.html

  

Medical problems caused 62% of all personal bankruptcies filed in the U.S. in 2007, according to a study by Harvard researchers. And in a finding that surprised even the researchers, 78% of those filers had medical insurance at the start of their illness, including 60.3% who had private coverage, not Medicare or Medicaid.

It’s worth noting, though, that the figure from the Harvard study includes those who lost their jobs or significant income due to illness – even if they didn’t cite mounting health care bills as a direct cause of their bankruptcy.

But it’s difficult to say for certain whether the much-touted finding – that half of all bankruptcies are due to medical issues (though not necessarily medical bills) – is correct. Other factors may well be in play, and the authors themselves acknowledge that if some respondents hadn’t faced health care problems, they may still have found themselves in court, filing for bankruptcy.

It’s possible that at least some of those who cited medical reasons had debt from other causes, a history of not paying their bills or other complicating issues that led to bankruptcy filing – not just health care. Health costs also could have been the final straw after a long, bruising battle with finances.

The study did note that those in the major medical issues group were "16 percent less likely than other debtors to cite trouble managing money as a cause of their bankruptcy." But in the end, the study relies mainly on people being honest. Since these results are self-reported, people could blame money troubles on their medical bills without justification.

The authors acknowledge this, too, but counter that respondents were likely being truthful for several reasons: Before filling out the survey, debtors had given financial information to the courts under the penalty of perjury, and that information "virtually never contradicted the questionnaire data." Also, it would have been difficult for anyone faking a medical issue to answer the detailed interview questions. And some were interviewed in their homes, which the interviewee found to be modest.

A study published in 1999 by Pennsylvania State University and Abt Associates researchers looked at filings in five court districts, determining that medical bills and credit card debt were the biggest factors leading to bankruptcy. But a 2008 study by a business professor at the University of California, Davis, said that while medical issues certainly caused bankruptcy, the bigger problem was that families spent beyond their means, leaving them vulnerable to even minor disruptions. "Although our study supports the notion that adverse events contribute to personal bankruptcy filings, the findings emphasize that excessive consumption probably contributes more to the recent increase in personal bankruptcy filing." That study looked at filings in Delaware in 2003.