Individuals who experienced a gap in medical care coverage over a two-year period were roughly twice as likely to file for bankruptcy as those who retained continuous coverage, according to an article in the Summer 2019 edition of the American Bankruptcy Institute Law Review.
In their article “Moving Beyond Medical Debt,” Professor Brook E. Gotberg of the University of Missouri School of Law in Columbia, Missouri, and Professor Michael D. Sousa of the University of Denver Sturm College of Law in Denver, Colorado, detailed their research looking at data from a national survey of adults from 2004 through 2014 that indicated that the principal predictor of consumer bankruptcy was a lapse in medical insurance coverage.
The professors’ study was funded in 2016 by the American Bankruptcy Institute’s Anthony H.N. Schnelling Endowment Fund to examine whether the expansion of Medicaid through the Affordable Care Act (“ACA”) has had a correlative effect on the rate of consumer bankruptcy filings across the country.
“Most existing empirical studies attempt to quantify the percentage of consumer bankruptcies that are ‘caused’ by unmanageable medical indebtedness,” Professors Gotberg and Sousa wrote. “This article addresses what we believe to be a more significant line of empirical inquiry, namely, the connection between health insurance coverage and consumer bankruptcy as a more precise measurement of how national health insurance programs may or may not affect bankruptcy filing rates.
“These findings contribute to the ongoing debate regarding the Affordable Care Act and the provision of health insurance to low-income Americans, and the role consistent health insurance coverage plays in relation to the consumer bankruptcy system.”
The American Bankruptcy Institute’s law review is published in conjunction with St. Johns University School of Law.
Learn more: www.abiworld.org.
Victoria Spears
Victoria Prussen Spears is senior vice president of Meyerowitz Communications Inc., a law firm marketing communications consulting company. A graduate of Sarah Lawrence College and Brooklyn Law School, Ms. Spears was an attorney at a leading New York City law firm before joining Meyerowitz Communications. She may be contacted at [email protected].