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Yes, crushing indeed. Number one cause of bankruptcies in the US is medical expenses.


That's not really true, or at least it would be hard to say for sure. Every source saying that cites the same survey where a majority of respondents claimed that it was at least a contributing factor. Its actually really hard to get good breakdowns of the numbers on this.


It's sort of a straw that breaks the camel's back situation in most cases I would wager. It's less that medical debt caused bankruptcy than it, added on top of housing debt and car loans and credit cards and student loans etc., finally pushed a household to a point where getting out from under it all was too much.


Yeah, I don’t exactly disagree. Many years ago I worked at a debt counseling company and had occasion to look at the records and listen in on phone calls. It was really quite fascinating and heartbreaking. There definitely seemed to be a few common patterns. Big debts around car crashes and complicated births were not uncommon. But on the other hand almost everyone had a crazy mortgage and a pile of credit card debt too.




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