More on personal bankruptcies

Most people are concerned about the increasing rates of personal bankruptcy, because they see the problem as being one of the debtors’ own creation: over spending and racking up credit card debt, trying to live beyond their means.  This was certainly Congress’ take when they originally set out to reform the code.  But a recent study through Harvard University should give folks a chance to reconsider:

Touted as the first in-depth analysis of medical causes of bankruptcy, the study looked at 1,771 court records of people who filed for bankruptcy in 2001 in five federal districts, including one in Illinois. More than half of those bankruptcy filers were interviewed in detail about their finances and health. The researchers determined that 46.2 percent to 54.5 percent of the nearly 1.5 million personal bankruptcy filings in 2001 could be chalked up, in large part, to medical problems.

Link.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 2nd, 2005 at 7:43 am and is filed under Domestic Relations. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.