Blog Action Day: When Illness Causes Financial Crisis

Wednesday, October 15, 2008 18:15

It is shameful, that in the United States, many families coping with severe medical problems live in poverty, or are literally bankrupted by their medical bills. Over the past 6 or 7 years, I’ve met far too many families coping with extreme financial hardship while their children struggle in the NICU, battle cancer or suffer from lifelong disabilities. Sometimes, there are safety nets – well known charities that are generous with money, housing, fun activities, etc. But, for others there is nothing more than the charity provided by friends and strangers to help them get through the day.

The problem is, parents of sick children shouldn’t have to be running fundraisers and bake sales, or organizing golf tournaments so that they can cover the costs of their child’s prescriptions, treatments or therapies. They shouldn’t be struggling because missing work for hospital visits just cost them their job.

The question is, what can be done? Socialized medicine can’t be the only answer, but I personally don’t know what is.

One Response to “Blog Action Day: When Illness Causes Financial Crisis”

judith says:

November 9th, 2008 at 5:03 am

I’m lucky living in the UK, we have the National Health Service, but it wasn’t always so. I can’t begin to imagine how financial worries at a time of great stress must affect a family. The NHS does have it’s critics, but I shudder to think where we’d be without it.