# Hospitalized with no insurance....a true story **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [September 26, 2011, 10:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hospitalized-with-no-insurance-a-true-story/597645 "2011-09-26T10:04:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 206
**Author:** ![emacknight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/3ec8ea/32.png) [@emacknight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/emacknight)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2011, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hospitalized-with-no-insurance-a-true-story/597645/206 "2011-10-02T03:48:22Z")
> [@gonzomax](#): > > In Canada and many other countries, nobody declares bankruptcy because of health care. It is a factor in 62 percent of our bankruptcies and most of them supposedly had insurance. Both of those statements are factually incorrect. [Survey research commissioned by the Canadian government found that despite having a government-run health system, medical reasons (including uninsured expenses), were cited as the primary cause of bankruptcy by approximately 15 percent of bankrupt Canadian seniors (55 years of age and older).](http://www.american.com/archive/2009/august/the-medical-bankruptcy-myth) [PDF version here](http://www.fraseramerica.org/commerce.web/product_files/HealthInsuranceandBankruptcyRates_US.pdf) [15% declared medical reasons the primary cause, although it was unclear from the data whether this was the costs of care over and above the Medicare system or income loss due to medical reasons, or some combination of both.(pdf from Canada)](http://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/bsf-osb.nsf/vwapj/Redish-Sarra-Schabas-2006-ENG.pdf/$FILE/Redish-Sarra-Schabas-2006-ENG.pdf) And that’s just for seniors, unless you consider them to be nobodies. --- _[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hospitalized-with-no-insurance-a-true-story/597645)._