AlterNet: Rights and Liberties: Your Money or Your Life

"The Health Affairs study [...] concluded that the average medical debtor was a 41-year-old homeowning woman, with children and at least some education. The study also found that a majority of middle-class debtors had health insurance both when they first grew sick and at the actual time they filed, another surprise. Insurance alone, it turns out, doesn't prevent medical bankruptcy, because it is often too porous to provide a real buffer against the financial burden of a serious illness.

'A lot of people were bankrupted because of co-payments, deductibles or uncovered services, which added up to thousands of dollars in bills,' says Steffie Woolhandler."

The real story in the US health care system: work-related health insurance doesn't work. It's time for universal health coverage in the US. Works great here in France.