Let me tell you the story of Joe Benson:
Mr. Joseph Benson is from Houston, Texas. When I met him for the first time last Wednesday he was wearing cowboy gear including the hat, which covered his long braided hair. He had a huge smile on his face and is a magnetic speaker; here is the story he told us: He was the first in his family to go to and complete college. After his BA, he went on and got professional chef’s training, and worked his way up in that industry, working in various restaurants and becoming a head chef. He saved money, moved back to Houston to help care of his parents and start his own family. He built up a custom catering business, and was now the boss, employing 25 other people.
He had a wife and two children, and was putting money away for their college funds. He had health insurance and auto insurance and his own home.
Surely this was the living embodiment of the “Only in America” all-American dream.
However, one night, on the way home from a catering job, he had an automobile accident, running head on into a commercial flatbed truck. The other truck was parked and loading scrap from a junk yard, and was jutting out into the road without it lights or blinkers on.
He survived but was in the hospital for almost a year, ending up with both legs amputated above the knee.
The medical bills quickly blew past what his insurance would cover. The owner and driver of the other truck did not have insurance, like 10-20% of vehicle owners despite the mandate to buy auto insurance, so Mr. Benson and his insurance company were unable to go after that source.
He lost his business.
His employees lost their jobs (and presumably their families suffered).
He and his family lost their house.
He and his family lost the kids college fund.
He lost his family.
When he was finally discharged from the hospital, it was to the street.
He wound up in a shelter, and eventually he was able to put his professional chef skills to work in the “soup kitchen.” From that he has worked his way back to sobriety, fulltime employment and housing.
Medical Bankruptcy:
- Illness and medical bills were linked to at least 62.1% of all personal bankruptcies in 2007. Based on the current bankruptcy filing rate, medical bankruptcies will total 866,000 and involve 2.346 million Americans this year – about one person every 15 seconds.
- Most medically bankrupt families were middle class before they suffered financial setbacks. 60.3% of them had attended college and 66.4% had owned a home; 20% of families included a military veteran or active-duty soldier.
- 78% of the individuals whose illness led to bankruptcy had health insurance at the onset of the bankrupting illness; 60% had private insurance.
- 69% of debtor families had coverage at the time of their bankruptcy filing; 60% of families had continuous coverage.
-Steffie Woolhandler, M.D., of the Harvard Medical School