Medical Debt and how to blame your Healthcare System!

Lisabug, thank you for the blog post at The Frampton Family: Intermountain Healthcare & Medical Debt, while I don’t agree with you that Intermountain Healthcare is to blame for your medical debt (it appears your genetic makeup and lifestyle would have drawn down massive medical debt no matter where you lived – no fault of yours, that’s just the way it is) I do agree there are some things you can do.

I am interested by your case and would be interested in your answers to the following questions as I try to make sense of the situation:

1. Can you give us a ballpark of how much medical debt you have? Perhaps a range: less than $5,000, between $5,000 and $15,000 or greater than $15,000?
2. Also, as a family of four if your income is less than 200% of the Federal Poverty level you might be able to use the Prescription Drug Assistance programs made available by the Pharmaceutical companies. You can probably get free drugs or greatly discounted drugs – check it out at the Partnership for Prescription Assistance
3. I would be interested to understand your insurance situation. Were you on an employer provided plan; was it a small or large employer? You mention the deductible was too much, please let me know about how large the deductible was? Also, if you are comfortable, let me know who your insurance company was and what plan it was? That way I can look over the benefits and get a better idea of what they were trying to do?
4. Finally, I know culturally Bankruptcy carries a variety of connotations. From your article you appear to look down on Bankruptcy? Please describe your thoughts on the purpose of bankruptcy and when/if people should apply for it? It appears you are from Utah, so you might want to check out the Utah Courts site for legal assistance here. Chapter 7 bankruptcy costs around $300.00.

Ok, that does it! I am creating a unique survey to gather responses. Please follow the link below to express your thoughts about Medical Debt:

Click here to take a Medical Debt survey

Once I have all the responses, I will post the results.

My personal conclusion before the survey results:

In short, I think that no matter where Lisabug had chosen to live, she would have experienced extremely high medical debt. It is not specifically Intermountain Healthcare, it has more to do with Lisabug's genetics, behavioral choices, and her physical and social environment. There is one thing though that Lisabug ignores - namely, that her medical debt would be higher if she lived in any other state in the nation. In other words, the charges she incurred in Utah are lower than the charges she would have incurred anywhere else in the nation. There can be no doubt that Intermountain Healthcare is one of the principle reasons Utah's health spending per capita is the lowest in the nation.

Health Spending Per Capita Comparision From Highest to Lowest
Source: Statehealthfacts.org created by the Kaiser Family Foundation (2004)

District of Columbia
$8,295
Massachusetts
$6,683
Maine
$6,540
New York
$6,535
Alaska
$6,450
Connecticut
$6,344
Delaware
$6,306
Rhode Island
$6,193
Vermont
$6,069
West Virginia
$5,954
Pennsylvania
$5,933
North Dakota
$5,808
New Jersey
$5,807
Minnesota
$5,795
Ohio
$5,725
Wisconsin
$5,670
Nebraska
$5,599
Maryland
$5,590
Florida
$5,483
Kentucky
$5,473
Tennessee
$5,464
Missouri
$5,444
New Hampshire
$5,432
Kansas
$5,382
Iowa
$5,380
South Dakota
$5,327
Indiana
$5,295
Illinois
$5,293
Wyoming
$5,265
North Carolina
$5,191
Alabama
$5,135
South Carolina
$5,114
Washington
$5,092
Montana
$5,080
Mississippi
$5,059
Michigan
$5,058
Louisiana
$5,040
Hawaii
$4,941
Oklahoma
$4,917
Oregon
$4,880
Arkansas
$4,863
Virginia
$4,822
Colorado
$4,717
California
$4,638
Texas
$4,601
Georgia
$4,600
Nevada
$4,569
New Mexico
$4,471
Idaho
$4,444
Arizona
$4,103
Utah
$3,972