Fix Our Health Care System? Nah!

Half of all Americans who go bankrupt do it due to medical bills, according to a study published yesterday.

And yes, this includes Americans who had medical insurance.

If that shocks you, then you haven't had a major illness in this country, and you can count yourself lucky.

Here's the link to the study:

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory?id=463499

Even Americans who haven't -- yet -- had a major illness or a serious accident ought to be taking this problem seriously, because all of us are going to have one of those in our immediate family at some point, probably. And if you think your insurance is going to cover it, I think you should get your insurance paperwork out and start reading the fine print now.

Then there's the whole problem of co-pays and COBRAs and premiums -- and the premiums I'm paying, right now, for my family of three? Five hundred a month.

That's for insurance that -- once the major illness or serious accident hits us -- will only cover 80% of the cost and has a life-time cap of a million dollars, not to mention a yearly deductible of a thousand bucks.

Did I mention I'm an English professor?

Any wonder we're going broke down here in Arkansas?