First few Article Sentences
A 2005 report surveyed 1,771 personal bankruptcy filings, half of which cited medical expense as the cause. For those suffering from an illness that preceded bankruptcy, individual out-of-pocket medical expenses averaged close to $12,000, and those qualifying as "medical debtors" were 42% more likely to experience lapses in health insurance coverage. This serves as the backdrop to what is commonly known in health care as "charity care" or "hospital fair pricing policies." Consumer advocates blamed hospitals as the cause of this financial epidemic, fueled by the absence of any law or regulation regarding the prices that uninsured and underinsured consumers/patients paid for health care, not to mention the collection practices employed by those entities insisting upon payment for services rendered.