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Comment by beAbU | Hacker News Reader

If you owe the bank $100k that's your problem. If you owe the bank $100M that's their problem.

If you owe the hospital $1,000 that's your problem. If you owe the hospital $100,000 that's their problem.

Medical debt is the #1 USA reason to personally declare bankruptcy... USA! USA!! USA!!!

[EDIT]: Despite this comment's unpopularity, this was how I first heard a similar quote, over a decade ago (in Medical School)...

so it remains posted =P

This is a typical saying in many languages. You owe <insert small amount>, it's your problem. You owe <insert insane amount>, it's their problem.

Coz if you get hit by a bus good luck collecting on the debt.. Now, regarding the medical debt.. I remember the day that I found out that in EU i was getting €60k gross, for a job that would pay $130k gross in the US.. so yeah.. eat well, work out, and if in the US you can save an extra $30-50k per year depending on your lifestyle.

Definitely, different approaches to ease of maintaining a "healthy" lifestyle.

I have about five years of my annual salary in investments (no house, yet), plus a healthy "retirement" account, if you can call bitcoins and gamestops "sound."

But I also DO NOT HAVE HEALTH INSURANCE (private contractor, for two+ decades). Nor any dependents (so no life insurance, obviously). I cannot contribute to such a broken system [healthcare] — I'd literally rather die.

For the GDP% spent in US, we really ought to treat ourselves better!

I have a childhood medical condition that has caused me a lifetime of marginal disability. I eat right and work out (as much as possible with the disability and it causes me much pain). I also save lots of money because I assume I'm going to need all of it for medical purposes at some point, and I'll still end up poor. Such is life I suppose, but it is possible to imagine a better system at least.

> Medical debt is the #1 USA reason to personally declare bankruptcy... USA! USA!! USA!!!

Good for them. Health insurance / medical care debt in EU (yes, that definitely exists) can't be handled by declaring bankruptcy, they're going to take practically all your money directly from your bank account until you die homeless.

I personally had this problem, fortunately I work in IT so I got out of it. Ever since then I am helping people in this situation - it's really not unheard of.

EU!!! EU!!! EU!!!

In the US, roughly 80% of medical costs are from chronic illness, and roughly 80% of chronic illness is caused by obesity.

So it stands to reason that ~64% of those medical debt bankruptcies are nobody's fault but their own because they refused to put down the twinkies.

I love how everyone loves to denigrate the health coverage situation in the US but fails to account for how fucking fat and lazy we are. There is no political solution for our unique problems, short of public hangings of food industry executives and mandatory rationing, both of which are anathema to the American Zeitgeist. Single-payer healthcare would only make the problem worse, as it would increase the moral hazard to stuffing our faces.

>Medical debt is the #1 USA reason to personally declare bankruptcy... USA! USA!! USA!!!

No. Only 4% of US bankruptcies are because of medical bills. <https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-partisan/wp/2018/0...>. A tipoff that insert large percentage here of bankruptcies aren't actually because of medical costs is that only 6% of bankruptcies by those without health insurance are because of that cause. The biggest cause of bankruptcies is lack of income, which health insurance doesn't affect.

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