Prodding Families into Divorce & Taking a Life Every 30 Minutes

Another great article in the New York Times by Nicholas Kristof. It is a sobering story supporting why there should be health care reform in the U.S.A. Here are some points from it. Kristof points out that the critics of health care reform argue that it would undermine American family values, not least by convening the Palinist expressed death panels. I wish the negative argument would stick to logic rather than emotional fear mongering. Kristof tells the story of a married woman whose husband is diagnosed with dementia. Upon considering the financial toll of what is to come she is advised to divorce her husband. Unless she does so the expenses will whittle away their combined assets, and then her husband can go on Medicaid – but by then their children’s inheritance would be gone, as would her retirement savings. She would be left with a bleak retirement with neither her husband nor her savings. Also for 5 years after any divorce, under U.S.A. law her assets could be seized – precisely because the government knows that people sometimes divorce spouses to escape their medical bills. Then he sets out the statistics – 62% of American bankruptcies are linked to medical bills. This has increased nearly 50% in just 6 years. But get this – 78% of these people actually had health insurance, but the gaps and inadequacies left them unprotected. The lack of health insurance causes 18,000 unnecessary deaths a year. That’s one person slipping through the cracks and dying every half an hour. This article is very much worth your reading. It can be found at http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/30/opinion/30kristof.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=kristof%20until%20medical%20bills%20do%20us%20part&st=cse