Medical issues are difficult to deal with and claim the finances of millions of Americans every year. Hefty medical bills can toss a family sideways financially and leave them scraping for the funds to pay for treatment, medication and hospitalization. More and more studies are showing the extreme impact that healthcare has on a middle-class American pocketbook. Many people lose their jobs due to crippling illness, leaving them without an income or an insurance plan.

In the past few years, The American Journal of Medicine has heavily researched the way that medical issues affect the finances of the average U.S. citizen. Their first ever random-sample survey of bankruptcy filers showed that illness and medical bills are the growing primary cause for filing. The American Journal of Medicine has found that between the years of 2001 and 2007, bankruptcies attributable to medical bills rose by 50 percent. In fact, it is widely recognized that medical expenses are the number one reason that individuals resort to bankruptcy every year.

Elsevier Health Sciences states that even before the current economic slump, an American family filed for bankruptcy in the aftermath of an illness every 90 seconds. In 2007, sources say that 60 percent of all bankruptcies were the result of expensive medical bills. The American Journal of Medicine has figured that the medically bankrupt of America average a debt of $17,943. Three quarters of these unfortunate citizens had health insurance, but found that they were underinsured.

These figures are highly debated and many opposing parties say that they include all medical treatment for substance abuse and child birth expenses which many say inflate the percentage unfairly. Due to the fact that most insurance companies are linked with employment, it is possible that a serious medical event can trigger a loss in coverage. Nearly a quarter of all insurance firms will cancel coverage when an employee suffers a disabling business and another quarter will withhold their aid within a year of the medical diagnosis.

In the state of Massachusetts, The American Journal of Medicine performed a further study and found that after the state had changed its healthcare policies, 52.9 percent of all medical issues were still related to bankruptcy. Most debtors in this state were female and the average age for a medical bankruptcy claim was 48.2 years old. Two thirds of all filers in 2009 were college graduates and 70.5 owned a home, which they lost in the liquidation process. Five other states were surveyed by a team of authors at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. In California, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Texas an average of eight percent of all insured men and women with medical issues were contacted by collections agencies to repay their debts; 31 percent of all uninsured men and women were in the same position.

If you are in deep debt and do not know how to repay all of your financial medical obligations, bankruptcy may be your best choice. If you choose to liquidate your assets, you could gain the money to repay all your owed monies and get a fresh start. This is an especially practical decision for men and women who have been out of work due to health issues and are not receiving a consistent salary. Over 9 million families in the United States today are spending 20 percent or more of their salary on medical expenses. If an emergency or a recently discovered health issue causes these numbers to rise, you will need all the financial profit you can find to make it through to the end.