Consumers who are unable to afford medical care must file for bankruptcy, which is known as a medical bankruptcy. A “medical bankruptcy,” on the other hand, has no clear-cut description.
The term “medical bankruptcy” was defined in a 2009 analysis of all 2007 bankruptcies as one where someone had mortgaged a house to pay medical debts, had medical bills of more than $1,000, or had missed at least two weeks of work owing to sickness.
Medical bankruptcies accounted for 62.1% of all bankruptcies in the United States under that category.
According to a 2015 report by the Kaiser Family Foundation, medical costs result in the bankruptcy of 1 million American adults each year, and 26% of Americans between the ages of 18 and 64 struggle to pay their medical bills.
When insurance companies refuse to cover medical procedures, they are the most prevalent source of medical debt, the research found.
Even outside of the United States, medical bankruptcy is very rare. Single-payer health care systems are common in most industrialized countries (excluding China), where medical expenditures are paid for by taxes rather than premiums.
Also See: Median Income by Country 2022
As a result, there are no medical debts that lead to bankruptcy in these nations. Other than the United States, nations with single-payer systems do not mandate medical treatments to be offered free of charge, and as a result, operations are paid for before treatment is provided.
Country | 2022 Population |
---|---|
Vatican City | 0.7990 |
Tokelau | 1.3780 |
Niue | 1.6220 |
Falkland Islands | 3.5390 |
Montserrat | 4.9650 |
Saint Pierre and Miquelon | 5.7590 |
Saint Barthelemy | 9.9450 |
Nauru | 10.9030 |
Wallis and Futuna | 10.9820 |
Tuvalu | 12.0660 |
Anguilla | 15.2300 |
Cook Islands | 17.5710 |
Palau | 18.2330 |
British Virgin Islands | 30.5960 |
Gibraltar | 33.7040 |
San Marino | 34.0850 |
Liechtenstein | 38.3870 |
Saint Martin | 39.7300 |
Turks and Caicos Islands | 39.7410 |
Monaco | 39.7830 |
Sint Maarten | 43.9660 |
Faroe Islands | 49.2330 |
Saint Kitts and Nevis | 53.8710 |
American Samoa | 55.0300 |
Greenland | 56.9730 |
Northern Mariana Islands | 58.2690 |
Marshall Islands | 60.0570 |
Bermuda | 61.9390 |
Cayman Islands | 67.2770 |
Dominica | 72.3440 |
Andorra | 77.4630 |
Isle of Man | 85.7320 |
Seychelles | 99.4260 |
Antigua and Barbuda | 99.5090 |
United States Virgin Islands | 103.9710 |
Aruba | 107.6090 |
Tonga | 107.7490 |
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines | 111.5510 |
Grenada | 113.4750 |
Micronesia | 117.4890 |
Kiribati | 123.4190 |
Curacao | 165.5290 |
Guam | 171.5190 |
Saint Lucia | 185.1130 |
Samoa | 202.2390 |
Sao Tome and Principe | 227.6790 |
French Polynesia | 284.1640 |
Mayotte | 286.2590 |
Barbados | 288.0230 |
New Caledonia | 290.9150 |
French Guiana | 314.1690 |
Vanuatu | 321.8320 |
Iceland | 345.3930 |
Martinique | 374.0870 |
Guadeloupe | 399.7940 |
Bahamas | 400.5160 |
Belize | 412.1900 |
Malta | 444.0330 |
Brunei | 445.4310 |
Maldives | 540.9850 |
Cape Verde | 567.6780 |
Suriname | 596.8310 |
Western Sahara | 626.1610 |
Montenegro | 627.9500 |
Luxembourg | 642.3710 |
Macau | 667.4900 |
Solomon Islands | 721.1590 |
Bhutan | 787.9410 |
Guyana | 794.0450 |
Comoros | 907.4190 |
Reunion | 908.0610 |
Fiji | 909.4660 |
Djibouti | 1016.0970 |
Eswatini | 1184.8170 |
Cyprus | 1223.3870 |
Mauritius | 1274.7270 |
Estonia | 1321.9100 |
Timor-Leste | 1369.4290 |
Trinidad and Tobago | 1406.5850 |
Equatorial Guinea | 1496.6620 |
Bahrain | 1783.9830 |
Latvia | 1848.8370 |
Guinea-Bissau | 2063.3670 |
Slovenia | 2078.0340 |
North Macedonia | 2081.3040 |
Lesotho | 2175.6990 |
Gabon | 2331.5330 |
Botswana | 2441.1620 |
Gambia | 2558.4820 |
Namibia | 2633.8740 |
Lithuania | 2661.7080 |
Puerto Rico | 2829.8120 |
Albania | 2866.3740 |
Armenia | 2971.9660 |
Qatar | 2979.9150 |
Jamaica | 2985.0940 |
Bosnia and Herzegovina | 3249.3170 |
Mongolia | 3378.0780 |
Uruguay | 3496.0160 |
Eritrea | 3662.2440 |
Georgia | 3968.7380 |
Moldova | 4013.1710 |
Croatia | 4059.2860 |
Kuwait | 4380.3260 |
Panama | 4446.9640 |
New Zealand | 4898.2030 |
Mauritania | 4901.9810 |
Central African Republic | 5016.6780 |
Ireland | 5020.1990 |
Costa Rica | 5182.3540 |
Liberia | 5305.1170 |
Oman | 5323.9930 |
Palestine | 5345.5410 |
Slovakia | 5460.1930 |
Norway | 5511.3700 |
Finland | 5554.9600 |
Republic of the Congo | 5797.8050 |
Denmark | 5834.9500 |
Singapore | 5943.5460 |
Turkmenistan | 6201.9430 |
El Salvador | 6550.3890 |
Lebanon | 6684.8490 |
Kyrgyzstan | 6728.2710 |
Nicaragua | 6779.1000 |
Bulgaria | 6844.5970 |
Libya | 7040.7450 |
Paraguay | 7305.8430 |
Laos | 7481.0230 |
Hong Kong | 7604.2990 |
Sierra Leone | 8306.4360 |
Serbia | 8653.0160 |
Togo | 8680.8370 |
Switzerland | 8773.6370 |
Israel | 8922.8920 |
Austria | 9066.7100 |
Papua New Guinea | 9292.1690 |
Belarus | 9432.8000 |
Hungary | 9606.2590 |
Tajikistan | 9957.4640 |
United Arab Emirates | 10081.7850 |
Portugal | 10140.5700 |
Sweden | 10218.9710 |
Honduras | 10221.2470 |
Azerbaijan | 10300.2050 |
Jordan | 10300.8690 |
Greece | 10316.6370 |
Czech Republic | 10736.7840 |
Dominican Republic | 11056.3700 |
Cuba | 11305.6520 |
South Sudan | 11618.5110 |
Belgium | 11668.2780 |
Haiti | 11680.2830 |
Bolivia | 11992.6560 |
Tunisia | 12046.6560 |
Burundi | 12624.8400 |
Benin | 12784.7260 |
Rwanda | 13600.4640 |
Guinea | 13865.6910 |
Zimbabwe | 15331.4280 |
Somalia | 16841.7950 |
Cambodia | 17168.6390 |
Netherlands | 17211.4470 |
Chad | 17413.5800 |
Senegal | 17653.6710 |
Ecuador | 18113.3610 |
Guatemala | 18584.0390 |
Romania | 19031.3350 |
Kazakhstan | 19205.0430 |
Chile | 19250.1950 |
Syria | 19364.8090 |
Zambia | 19470.2340 |
Malawi | 20180.8390 |
Mali | 21473.7640 |
Sri Lanka | 21575.8420 |
Burkina Faso | 22102.8380 |
Taiwan | 23888.5950 |
North Korea | 25990.6790 |
Australia | 26068.7920 |
Niger | 26083.6600 |
Ivory Coast | 27742.2980 |
Cameroon | 27911.5480 |
Madagascar | 29178.0770 |
Venezuela | 29266.9910 |
Nepal | 30225.5820 |
Yemen | 31154.8670 |
Ghana | 32395.4500 |
Mozambique | 33089.4610 |
Malaysia | 33181.0720 |
Peru | 33684.2080 |
Uzbekistan | 34382.0840 |
Angola | 35027.3430 |
Saudi Arabia | 35844.9090 |
Poland | 37739.7850 |
Morocco | 37772.7560 |
Canada | 38388.4190 |
Afghanistan | 40754.3880 |
Iraq | 42164.9650 |
Ukraine | 43192.1220 |
Algeria | 45350.1480 |
Sudan | 45992.0200 |
Argentina | 46010.2340 |
Spain | 46719.1420 |
Uganda | 48432.8630 |
South Korea | 51329.8990 |
Colombia | 51512.7620 |
Myanmar | 55227.1430 |
Kenya | 56215.2210 |
Italy | 60262.7700 |
South Africa | 60756.1350 |
Tanzania | 63298.5500 |
France | 65584.5180 |
United Kingdom | 68497.9070 |
Thailand | 70078.2030 |
Germany | 83883.5960 |
Turkey | 85561.9760 |
Iran | 86022.8370 |
DR Congo | 95240.7920 |
Vietnam | 98953.5410 |
Egypt | 106156.6920 |
Philippines | 112508.9940 |
Ethiopia | 120812.6980 |
Japan | 125584.8380 |
Mexico | 131562.7720 |
Russia | 145805.9470 |
Bangladesh | 167885.6890 |
Brazil | 215353.5930 |
Nigeria | 216746.9340 |
Pakistan | 229488.9940 |
Indonesia | 279134.5050 |
United States | 334805.2690 |
India | 1406631.7760 |
China | 1448471.4000 |