Tell Somebody

David Himmelstein, M.D. — Harvard Medical School, co-founder, Physicians for a National Health Plan is the guest on this edition of Tell Somebody. The following came in a press release from Public Citizen: Two-Thirds of Bankruptcies Are Medically Related; National Health Insurance Needed NowStatement of Sidney Wolfe, M.D., Director, Health Research Group at Public CitizenA nationwide study showing that 62 percent of bankruptcies in 2007 were related to medical bills or illness underscores the need for a single-payer health care system.The study, conducted by researchers at Harvard Medical School, Harvard Law School and Ohio State University (David Himmelstein, Steffie Woolhandler, Elizabeth Warren and Deborah Thorne) found the high bankruptcy rate even though more than three-quarters (78 percent) of the people having medical bankruptcies had health insurance - mainly private insurance - at the start of their illness. It is astounding that medically related bankruptcies increased by half from 2001 to 2007 - we