I pay several hundred dollars per month (over $800) for health insurance as the small business owner. This is for a high deductible plan. Despite the health insurance my medical bills (over the cost of the insurance) exceed $5000 per year. This has been the case for the last few years. I have not had to file for bankruptcy.

My family has had to change its lifestyle though. My husband had to quit his job entirely as my daughter’s illness required someone to be home with her at least 10 days per month for over a year and these days were not known ahead. Some of the times were emergency. She has 6 doctors that she regularly sees for care at 2 major medical centers in 2 different states. Both centers are over an hour away from our home.

No I am not bankrupt, but the added problems with health insurance have made her illness even harder to manage.

The only problem with your plan – apart from the illegality – is that you only get the resale value of the car if its totaled. So our hypothetical people could, in theory, just sell their cars legally and use that money. I will admit that it never occurred to me to sell my car to pay my bills, but now that I have the money and no car, I’m not really in a hurry to get a new one. Of course, I have the advantage of living in a walkable neighborhood with a person who will let me drive her car, so I don’t really need my own car.

As for 2., thanks for the kind words. It’s frustrating to know medical debt is rampant, but that we still don’t have a clear picture of the extent of the problem.

2. On a more serious note, this post is amazing. We need more progressives with your kind of spine. I agree with what you wrote. Medical debt is so rampant that we hardly need to inflate numbers to make it a significant issues.

Best,

Kairol
http://everythingchangesbook.com/