Kathy, please do some research before you simply repeat what you read. The answer to your question is very few people go bankrupt due to medical bills. There is no reason why a medical provider would ever push someone into bankruptcy. They are unsecured creditors and get nothing when people file for bankruptcy.

The truth is when people suffer major medical health issues, they are often unable to work and so they can't pay any of their bills. At first, they run their credit cards to the limit and stop paying their car payments and mortgages. Eventually, an unpaid secured creditor pushes them into bankruptcy, or they opt to do so to wipe out the debt on their credit cards. In the process, most people because they had a medical condition have medical bills at the time they file for bankruptcy... but it was not the medical provider pushing them into bankruptcy or causing them to file for bankruptcy.

Now sometimes our government makes it hard to give away care. Nice to know the government is looking out for you. Medicare has a provision that says it is entitled to the lowest price a provider offers anyone. So, if a poor mother with three sick children came to our office, we would tell her that we will have to bill her and then send her a bunch of nasty letters to prove to Medicare we "tried" to collect what was owed to us... then we will simply write off the balance. Isn't our government wonderful?

By the way, I don't think you know what universal health care means. It does not mean government provides health care coverage for every citizen. That is one form of universal health care, but there are many other forms. And by the way, France which has "universal health care" requires citizens to pay 30% of the bill, so a $100,000 bill could cost a citizen $30,000. That is why over 80% of French citizens buy private supplemental health insurance and the remaining 20% are poor and qualify for government supplemental insurance.

I encourage you to do more research before you just blurt stuff out. Before running physician groups, I was a senior financial officer for the nation's largest Medicare and Medicaid program administrator. And I spoke at various conferences and consulted with various national health care research organizations on who to make health care more affordable to all citizens. Please don't accuse people of stuff, when you don't know them.