Data Check

One of the principle arguments for turning the nation upside down with a single-payer/socialized medicine program is the whine that “Over 50% of American bankruptcies are caused by medical expenses.”

Nice line. Pulls the heartstrings and causes a need to feel warm and fuzzy by “doing something” about it.

But, like most liberal propaganda, it is a lie.

The figure comes from a 2005 Harvard University study saying that 54 percent of bankruptcies in 2001 were caused by health expenses. We reviewed it internally and knocked it down at the time; an academic reviewer did the same in 2006. Recalculating Harvard’s own data, he came up with a far lower figure – 17 percent.

…..

A more recent study by another group, approaching it another way, indicates that in 2007 about eight-tenths of one percent of Americans lived in families that filed for bankruptcy as a result of medical costs.

…..

A good part of the problem is definitional. The Harvard report claims to measure the extent to which medical costs are “the cause” of bankruptcies. In reality its survey asked if these costs were “a reason” – potentially one of many – for such bankruptcies.

Beyond those who gave medical costs as “a reason,” the Harvard researchers chose to add in any bankruptcy filers who had at least $1,000 in unreimbursed medical expenses in the previous two years. Given deductibles and copays, that’s a heck of a lot of people.

Moreover, Harvard’s definition of “medical” expenses includes situations that aren’t necessarily medical in common parlance, e.g., a gambling problem, or the death of a family member. If your main wage-earning spouse gets hit by a bus and dies, and you have to file, that’s included as a “medical bankruptcy.”

When I asked the lead author, Dr. David Himmelstein, about his definitions of medical bankruptcy back in 2005, he said, “It’s a judgment call,” and added that any death, for example, “to our mind is a medical event.”

So if you die without a large enough amount of life insurance and your family has to file for Chapter 11 because of a lack of income, your death gets put into the pile of statistics being used to force your heirs to get rationed care via Uncle Obama.

Makes those goofy tests they preform before issuing your policy sound a little less goofy.
Lies, damned lies, and statistics. Indeed.

Found via RTftWC