NewsFromRussia.Com Bankruptcy in return for health

"Illness and medical bills contributed to roughly half the personal bankruptcy filings in 2001, affecting as many as 2.2 million Americans, a new Harvard study says.
More than 75 percent of the filers had insurance, but many of them lost coverage during their illness, the research showed.
The study, which appears in the Feb. 2 issue of Health Affairs, provides a rare -- and stark -- glimpse into the medical causes of bankruptcy in the United States.
People who succumb to medical debt are mostly middle-class or working-class people who own their own homes and have at least some college education, the study found.
With the cooperation of bankruptcy judges in five federal districts, the study authors distributed questionnaires to debtors at their mandatory meetings with court-appointed trustees. A total of 1,250 questionnaires -- 250 per district -- were collected, providing data on demographics, housing and specific reasons for filing bankruptcy, reports the Forbes.
According to ABC News, Half of all U.S. bankruptcies are caused by soaring medical bills and most people sent into debt by illness are middle-class workers with health insurance, researchers said on Wednesday.
The study, published in the journal Health Affairs, estimated that medical bankruptcies affect about 2 million Americans every year, if both debtors and their dependents, including about 700,000 children, are counted.
'Our study is frightening. Unless you're Bill Gates you're just one serious illness away from bankruptcy,' said Dr. David Himmelstein, an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School who led the study.
'Most of the medically bankrupt were average Americans who happened to get sick. Health insurance offered little protection.'
The researchers got the permission of bankruptcy judges in California, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Texas to survey 931 people who filed for bankruptcy.
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In the US, the unacknowledged truth is much scarier than fiction.