Rodriguez, Angela1

Angela Rodriguez
03/14/16
Prof. Gustavson
English composition 101
Research Report how medical bills lead to debt and sometimes default to bankruptcy
Imagine on a nice summer day, you feel perfectly fine, enjoying the nice weather.
Suddenly, and unexpectedly you feel really ill and you cannot stand it. By this point your only
option is to go to the hospital because everything is now unmanageable. Now you are at the
hospital, and are told that they need to do proper procedures to ensure your wellbeing, and you
have to stay overnight. You say, Okay not a problem, as long as I become well. The next day,
everything is finished, and you feel better so you get discharged from the hospital. A week has
passed since that incident, and you have come to find out that your health insurance is only
covering about 25% of costs from that day. So, you have to pay the remainder of the bill to the
hospital out of pocket. You may not have the money to pay the hospital because its ridiculously
expensive from that one night. Youve decided to slowly pay off the hospital as much as you can
monthly, in order to try to stay intact. However interest is being collected and its becoming too
much for you to pay. You become late on these bills, and now they are getting turned over to a
debt collector, which you are now in debt and possibly will become bankrupt in a year or so.
Feels like a nightmare? And you do not want to read any longer because now you feel scared.
However this nightmare, people do experience! Shocking right? This is a growing crisis that
medical bills lead into debt and sometimes bankruptcy.

Rodriguez, Angela2

An informational article I have read online by Dan, Mangan Medical bills are the
biggest costs of US bankruptcies: Study has given me better knowledge and input I can use on
this topic of growing concern. This article discusses how many Americans are struggling with
debt which leads to bankruptcy, because of medical costs from procedures that were needed.
Since medical costs are notably expensive, many people are unable to pay off their debt in the
allotted amount of time which leads to interest being added. Sometimes for many individuals this
debt becomes overwhelming. This person begins maxing out their credit cards to pay for this
debt, which causes more debt. Resulting, in that person to file for bankruptcy. These filings affect
about 12 million people annually (Mangan). In my opinion 2 million is a high number and
excessive amounts of money are lost and lives are being scarred because they tried to seek
medical help and help themselves in order to stay alive and well. Many Americans also may have
health insurance. Even when people have health insurance, these companies decline to pay for a
lot of the medical costs because they exceeded their deductible or they find the procedure too
expensive and not needed. Lastly, many Americans have to take daily prescriptions to stay well
or to avoid becoming sicker. However, prescriptions in the US are quite expensive, which often
individuals cannot afford. Which adds on to their debt, but they need these pills in order to
survive. What is their solution? The solution that is common among these people, without a
doubt is not recommended, is they skip their prescription doses. They try to be resourceful and
save the medication as long as they can before having no choice to pay again for their refills.
This is not a good solution because it is going against your doctors orders and you are not
properly taking care of yourself. Approximately 25 million people are doing this which is quite
troubling (Nerd Wallet).

Rodriguez, Angela3

Two other articles I have read, which are a little more opinionated, but resourceful, can
also help you understand. They are: Why do drug companies charge so much? Because they
can by Marcia, Angell and How much do medical devices cost? Doctors have no idea by
John, Tozzi. The first article by Angell explains, how small pharmaceutical companies who make
an effective drug, usually are bought out for generous amounts of money by larger
pharmaceutical companies. These larger companies buy out the smaller companies because they
can increase the price on that drug dramatically and consumers will without a doubt pay for these
drugs if they are effective. For example, certain drugs like Daraprim have become drug
monopolies, meaning that no one has made a generic for this drug (Angell). This drug is the only
one on the market which consumers have no choice but to pay for. This company can charge
whatever they want knowing they are the only seller which makes them a monopoly. What is the
excuse these companies are using as to why they are charging so much? They say that the money
is needed to fund lab tests or research for this drug. Which I find absurd because they are
receiving more than enough money for funding compared to other countries. It makes you
wonder where is the remainder of the money going to? The CEO maybe?. Reading near the end
of the article you discover that the United States is the only country that allows drug companies
to charge whatever they want for their drugs. Whereas, other countries have regulations and
dont allow the drug companies to charge whatever they like. Angell points out that
pharmaceutical manufacturers are consistently among the most profitable companies. If they
are the most profitable, why do they need more money? For their own greed since they do not
have regulations.
The last opinionated article I had read was by John Tozzi called How much do medical
devices cost? Doctors have no idea. Tozzi explains, how in a study Health Affairs asked

Rodriguez, Angela4

different doctors what they thought the prices were for certain supplies. 81% of the doctors who
answered guessed wrong (Tozzi). Why did they guess wrong? Because doctors did not have a
clue of how much companies were charging hospitals/institutions for certain medical supplies. It
is far from their knowledge because medical manufactures have hospital purchasing departments
keeping the prices confidential, so they can charge other medical institutions a higher price if
they choose to and no one will know. Since many doctors dont know the prices of the materials,
they usually choose materials for their patients that consist of better quality, without realizing
how expensive that material is. Also, they do not realize how most of the time, insurance will not
cover it and it falls on the consumer to pay for it. Which is a pretty unreasonable price. Lastly, in
the article Tozzi explains how in 2007 a senate bill would have required device makers to
disclose the prices to regulators and to the public, however device makers successfully lobbied
against it. This is without a doubt absurd. How can they get past lawmakers and win to override
it? It begins to make you thing that these multibillion dollar companies somehow bribed these
lawmakers into getting their way, because if this bill was passed, these companies would have
lost millions. As you and I have read, you can clearly see that the way the medical system works
is unfair and it consists of who can make more money, while we as the people suffer to pay these
debts from trying to maintain health and survive.
In order to give my readers a better idea/image of what I feel is a growing crisis in
America, I had conducted a survey of 5 questions, and passed them out to my classmates at
NCC. They were to answer the questions to the best of their knowledge anonymously. After the
surveys were completed, I had chosen two questions that in my opinion were most important and
made a graph to show everyones answer to these two questions. Here is what Ive conducted:

Rodriguez, Angela5

Do you believe some costs for medical services/prescriptions should be reduce, than what they are now?

Yes; 100%

Chart 1

Do you think it's unfair that health insurance companies can decide whether or not to pay for certain services/prescriptions, if you're already paying a high insurance premium?

No it's fair; 6%

Yes it's unfair; 94%

Chart 2
Looking at these two graphs, you can see in Chart 1, that 100% of everyone agrees that
medical services/prescription prices need to be reduced. Everyone who had answered my survey
for that question have knowledge that these are growing costs for us individuals. In Chart 2, 94%

Rodriguez, Angela6

agreed that its unfair that insurance companies can decide whether or not to cover certain
services, although youre paying a high premium. Whereas 6% had believed that its fair. 94% is
a huge number that can see something isnt right. When I finished analyzing these surveys, I had
begun to feel emotion towards the answers my classmates had provided. According to the
majority of the answers, you can clearly see things are out of hand and there needs to be change,
because medical debt is only increasing.
From reading several articles and doing great amounts of research, I conclude that
medical costs lead to debt and sometimes bankruptcy. I also educated myself and learned great
amounts of information that made me have a stronger hold on this issue. I will continue to
research and try to make a change in the way our healthcare system works, even if its in a small
way. The several articles I have mentioned have made me realize how much of a growing
concern it is for Americans who are in debt. They are suffering, trying to have a hold on their
lives and they cant because debt/bankruptcy follows you to your death. The US needs to have
more regulations of how the healthcare system works so we can reduce the growing debt caused
by medical costs.
Mangan, Dan. "Medical bills are the biggest costs of US bankruptcies: Study" CNBC
25 Jun. 2013. Web 26 Feb. 2016
Angell, Marcia Why do drug companies charge so much? Because they can. Washington Post.
25 Sept. 2015. Web 2 Mar. 2016
Tozzi, John How much do medical devices cost? Doctors have no idea Bloomberg Business
23 Jan. 2014. Web 6 Mar.2016