Obamacare Will Significantly Reduce Bankruptcies

This is one aspect of Obamacare that is not discussed much, but it should be. The large number of bankruptcies in this country doesn't just hurt the people who have to declare them and their creditors -- it hurts the economy in general, and that affects all of us. Obamacare would significantly reduce the number of bankruptcies -- most or all of the 62% of bankruptcies caused by enormous medical bills. It would do that by covering more people with health insurance, by requiring that insurance to cover more medical procedures, and by capping the amount of money someone with insurance would have to pay in a year (at slightly over $6,000).

Unfortunately the Republicans are demanding (and too many Democrats are ready to cave in to those demands) that people be allowed to keep insurance policies with inadequate coverage and no cap -- policies that could cause consumers to have to declare bankruptcy if they got a serious illness. It now looks like many will be allowed to keep those inadequate policies (many of which are little more than insurance "scams") for another year. This is unacceptable, and helps no one (except the politicians playing political games with people's health).