Thursday, March 18, 2010

A hidden cost of our Health Care system

I attended a continuing education event today presented by a couple of attorneys who have bankruptcy practices. As an aside late in the presentation one of the attorneys stated that 25% of the bankruptcy cases they filed were a direct result of people trying to get out from under debts from unreimbursed health care expenses. The other attorney agreed his experience was similar.

Makes me wonder if this fact was included in the calculation by the World Health Organization that we in the US spend twice as much money per person on health care than people spend in any other country in the world. I doubt it. It seems more likely we spend twice as much without even factoring in the losses to everyone that are incurred in bankruptcy proceedings.