Sunday, July 19, 2009

The Republican-American Ethically bankrupt

The Republican-American Ethically bankrupt
"Democratic Sen. Christopher Dodd has been going around talking up KennedyDoddCare by claiming '62 percent of all personal bankruptcies were caused by medical problems.'

His source was so-called research by Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP), hardly a disinterested bystander. To achieve that lofty number, it had to distort the definition of medical bankruptcy while failing to control for household overspending, the No. 1 cause of personal bankruptcies in the aftermath of illness or injury.

But when medical bankruptcies are more accurately defined as those attributable solely to medical-related costs beyond a household's control, the rate plummets to just 29 percent. Even then, U.S. Justice Department statistics show that in personal bankruptcies blamed at least in part on unpaid physician and hospital bills, medical costs comprised no more than 13 percent of all unsecured debts."

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