Pamphlet handed to me by Matt from United Workers. I met him at the Local 2610 retirees' meeting in November. He was supposed to talk to the retirees' about healthcare, but did not get a chance to due to MedStar's presentation. I asked him where they got the statistic about bankruptcies, and he emailed me this in response: "forty-five percent of Maryland residents surveyed reported that they had
trouble paying medical bills. High healthcare costs not only hurt people’s health, but can also push whole families into financial hardship, debt, and even bankruptcy. A quarter of all people in Maryland under 65 years of age spend more than 7% of their income on medical costs.41    The Maryland survey findings are reflected in national figures: 41% of adults said in a 2012 national survey that they have problems paying medical bills or are paying medical bills over time, and 26% said they are in medical debt.42 Twenty-two percent of adults—more than one in five—said they had been contacted by a collections agency about medical bills, and two-thirds of these people reported that they suffered other financial consequences as a result of medical debt, such as a lower credit rating, loss of their savings, credit card debt, or bankruptcy.    Medical costs are the number one cause of personal bankruptcy in the United States. A national study found that 62% of personal bankruptcies were caused by illness and medical costs, and that 78% of people who experienced medical bankruptcy had health insurance at the onset of their medical condition." Maybe in the future, he can help determine whether or not the retirees' loss of healthcare was a violation of their human rights and therefore whether structural violence was at play.
