Elizabeth Warren on the Relationship Between Our Broken Health Care System and Personal Bankruptcy

Professor Elizabeth Warren testified last week before the Judiciary Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives on the tragic relationship between our failing health care system and the rise in personal bankruptcies.  As Prof. Warren puts it:  "Since 2000, an estimated five million families have filed for bankruptcy in the aftermath of serious medical problems. The current health care finance system is bankrupting hard-working, play-by-the-rules American families."  Prof. Warren's testimony, as well as materials related to her proposal to create a Financial Product Safety Commission to protect consumers against risky financial products, can be found at this entry on the Harvard Law School website.  For more on the relationship between illness/injury and bankruptcy, see this empirical study in the journal Health Affairs by Warren, David Himmelstein, Steffie Woolhandler, and Deborah Thorne.
 

Comments

[Isaac]

What we need to do is a massive deregulation along with a revamping of the run-away patent process in America. This would dramatically reduce the cost of health care across the country.