An Umbrella That Melts In The Rain

That's the analogy Harvard Medical School Professor Dr. David Himmelstein used to describe the US private health care system in a recent LA Times article on medical bankruptcies. I heard a short segment about this on NPR this morning and was flabbergasted to learn that 2 out of 3 personal bankruptcies are directly caused by medical bills. Even scarier? 78% of those people had private insurance but averaged $17,943 in out-of-pocket expenses. These are average Americans; most of whom own homes (66%) and went to college (60%). So sad. So scary.