Bankruptcy Indiana

Every story of bankruptcy in Indiana has a chapter about jobs and a chapter about health, and some have both. 

To hear the Columbus bankruptcy lawyers and the attorneys in the Anderson, Bloomington, and Indianapolis Zuckerberg bankruptcy law offices tell it, a good number of the people who seek our help filing for protection under the new bankruptcy laws of Indiana just want harassing medical collections calls to stop!  Those people may have been victims of a job layoff and lost their insurance coverage, but the collection agencies' efforts can be unrelenting.  Medical bills are one of the top three causes of bankruptcy, and are making up an even bigger share in recent years.

As a debt consolidation lawyer offering bankruptcy services in Indiana, I'm all too aware of the role rising medical costs are playing in bankruptcy.  Meanwhile, of course, those costs continue to rise even more.

I just finished reading a fascinating book named Five Patients, written by Michael Crichton (author of Jurassic Park). This book, a history of hospital medicine in the U.S., was written back in 1970, forty years ago!  Change the numbers, though, and it could be about our situation today! Here are some quotes along with my comments:

"The cost of hospitalization has skyrocketed.  The average patient today (1970) pays per hour what the average patient paid per day in 1925!"

How that relates to personal bankruptcy in Indiana: Medical debt is unsecured debt, dischargeable through bankruptcy.  In fact, hospital costs are one of the main forms of debt for which Hoosiers seek bankruptcy relief. 

"Hospitalization costs have increased much more rapidly than other goods and services in the economy."

As a lawyer for individual bankruptcy in Indiana (as well as for small business bankruptcy in Indiana), I'm continually seeing the effects of this medical cost spiral.  The profitability of small businesses and their ability to hire is impacted.

Michael Crichton writes about five patients, using their stories to illustrate the development of medicine as practiced in U.S. hospitals.  I couldn't help thinking that, in the four Zuckerberg bankruptcy law offices, we could find upwards of five thousand stories about clients to whom we've offered Indiana bankruptcy help because of crippling medical costs!.