Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record an article in Consumer Reports dated May 2, 2017, entitled: ``How the Affordable Care Act Drove Down Personal Bankruptcy.'' How the Affordable Care Act Drove Down Personal Bankruptcy Expanded health insurance helped cut the number of filings by half (By Allen St. John) As legislators and the executive branch renew their efforts to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act this week, they might want to keep in mind a little-known financial consequence of the ACA: Since its adoption, far fewer Americans have taken the extreme step of filing for personal bankruptcy. Filings have dropped about 50 percent, from 1,536,799 in 2010 to 770,846 in 2016 (see chart, below). Those years also represent the time frame when the ACA took effect. Although courts never ask people to declare why they're filing, many bankruptcy and legal experts agree that medical bills had been a leading cause of personal bankruptcy before public healthcare coverage expanded under the ACA. Unlike other causes of debt, medical bills are often unexpected, involuntary, and large. ``If you're uninsured or underinsured, you can run up a huge debt in a short period of time,'' says Lois Lupica, a bankruptcy expert and Maine Law Foundation Professor of Law at the University of Maine School of Law. So did the rise of the ACA--which helped some 20 million more Americans get health insurance--cause the decline in bankruptcies?…”