– The authors of the study never said that total personal bankruptcies have increased since 2001. (McArdle claims they imply this.) They explicitly document an increase in the percentage of personal bankruptcies attributable to medical bills.

– Of course total personal bankruptcies fell between 2001 and 2007, in part because of

1. the little business of the 2005 bankruptcy bill, specifically designed to make it harder for consumers to file Chapter 7, and

2. the fact that 2001 to 2007 arbitrarily demarcates the period from the DotCom Bust to the height of the mortgage-backed boom.

Now, what I’m getting from people who are against any kind of single-payer plan is this comment from Megan McCardle about the bankruptcy study:
**

What’s left out here? That in 2001, 1.45 million households filed for bankruptcy. In 2007, that number was 727,167. Had their paper done the basic arithmetic, readers would easily have seen that their own numbers imply a decrease in medical bankruptcies, from about 750,000 to slightly over 500,000. Yet their paper does not merely ignore this fact; it uses language that seems deliberately designed to conceal it. I invite any of my readers to scan the paper for any hint that medical bankruptcies had fallen significantly over 6 years.

This is elementary social science. A huge change in the composition of your sample needs to be noted. It certainly should not be artfully disguised. If the 2005 bankruptcy form made it more difficult to file bankruptcy, the people who still file bankruptcy will largely be those who are forced to it by events totally beyond their control. Medical bankruptcies seem to fill that bill.

Yet even so, their own work shows medical bankruptcies falling in the years between 2001 and 2007, which would seem to invalidate, not support, the claim that half of all bankruptcies in 2001 were driven by medical events beyond the household’s control.

http://meganmcardle.theatlanti….._terri.php

And I pose this question: Is she right?

You are a blessing to those in need.

One of the points covered in one of the posts and discussions was money to educate medical support personnel. To which I say hooray, but I wish I could write in further education for doctors as well. And I want to share my personal stance on the health care system.

I some 20 million Americans have a neurological condition known as peripheral neuropathy (PN. The American doctor and supporting professionals know very little about this complex disease condition that has some 100 types of manifestation and some 200 causes, including some commonly prescribed medications. Most will think that only diabetics have PN (they do constitute about one-third of all PNers)and if their PNer patients aren’t diabetic they don’t know what to do as they’re not trained in that and other forms of PN; nor are they trained on how to treat it, regardless of cause and will pretty automatically prescribe neurontin with varying degrees of dosages – 300 to 3600 mg per day; which will help some in reducing some symptoms. And PN symptoms will vary over time and in relation to the cause(s) of the neuropathy, but most docs won’t know that. Nor will they know about lots of other alternative treatments that could really better help with the symptoms; they’re unknown because they aren’t owned and pushed by big Pharma.

When people talk about the best practices research and service limitations in the stimulus package and healthcare reform writings, I get real concerned because know that Big Pharma will dominate the determinations of what works and will be paid for. The complimentary/alternative medical
lobby is too small and weak to demand a seat at the table and assurance or their perspectives be included, despite the NIH sponsored CAM research and treatment recommendations.

I’ve been involved in a Northern California regional network of support groups for the last several years, leading groups, writing and publishing a monthly newsletter filled with all kinds of PN news, etc., advocating for better medical care with doctors, doing public education health fairs providing lots of PN info, and organized a unique public awareness project in which we had eyecatching posters on all the buses in the three county Sacramento metro area with a cartoon depiction of the most common symptoms, along with a list, a phone number to call for more information, etc.

I’ve been the voice for the neuropathy hotline for almost two years
and I’ve learned a great deal about the paucity of competent treatment for those PNers who ride buses, whether they are middle class public transit commuters, lower income and homeless folks. Hundreds, maybe thousands have seen the posters, many have recognized the symptons as like their own.
Suddently they have a name and know they’re not crazy. Many have called and their stories have broken my heart. Sometimes I have tried to intervene with the public health clinics they may have access to. If they don’t have medical care, I send brochures about area clinics to which they might go and a brochure from the Health Rights Hotline on how they can get help with their provider problems. I’ve always sent a sizeable Neuropathy 101 package of information and a list of area support groups they might attend – even knowing that most of whose locations aren’t accessible by bus, etc.

What I know from talking with these folks and solidly middle class folks
who come to support group meetings or otherwise get to me, is that none of us are getting really competent care for our conditions because of very limited doctor/nurse training on neurological conditions and pain management strategies, even all doctors are supposedly required to attend yearly (?) workshops on this.

What I know from these encounters is that we desperately need secure, competent, comprehensive medical care in our issues. What I know is that it rarely exists and most doctors haven’t a clue to what we’re experiencing and we are totally discounted and denied appropriate diagnostic procedures and treatment options for our chronic conditions. (I forgot to mention that there is no cure for “99%” of our neuropathies.) I find this to be generally true regardless of the public and/or private sources of our medical care.

Part of our problem is that most of us are “older” (although PN can occur at all ages, depending on the type/cause) and we tend to be discounted by most doctors, most of whom still say that little is know about neuropathies. That once was true, but it no longer is, there is tons of information available in medical textbooks, patient-centered books, and the internet. As we learn, we begin to educate oen another and our doctors.

So regardless of whatever the final general shape and particulars are to be in the new legislation, I hope to God that the kinds of concerns I’ve outlined above will find some resolution. But I am thoroughly convinced that the best prospect is single payer systems and a strong PN advocacy community fighting for improved services for us.

Sometimes I’ve wished that I’d had cancer or some other more commonly known condition. Maybe then I and others with neuropathy would have gotten better care.

Bastante. Thanks again for FDL’s coverage of the healthcare reform issue in remarkable depth and breadth.

Blessings to all,

Until costs are controlled, it makes little difference whether there is single payer or not. Just as in workers compensation, we need standard insurance policies and no fault payments. Require any insurance companies to meet standards and get approval for their rates.

With health costs reaching 1/6 of our GNP, we must admit there is no quick fix. But it is essential we accept that health insurance is an American right.

In addition to the comparison by Bargain Countertenor that selise links to, here’s a comparison from the Leadership Conference for Guaranteed Health Care web site. The Leadership Conference is the single payer coalition comprising PNHP, CNA/NNOC, and PDA.