Contributing Factors Are Not Causes

The liberal group Health Care for America Now has come out with another ad attacking the health insurance industry. The ad is running as part of a million dollar ad buy, according to the group. It repeats a claim that is being made repeatedly as the debate over overhauling the health care system heats up.

The ad says “62 percent of personal bankruptcies are caused by medical debt,” and the group’s backup points to a study conducted by Harvard researchers, led by David Himmelstein, that was released in June of this year.

To start, the study doesn’t quite back up the ad. The researchers found that “illness or medical bills contributed to 62.1% of all bankruptcies,” but that’s not the same as saying that bankruptcies were caused by “medical debt,” as the ad claims. To say that something is one of a number of contributing factors falls short of saying it “caused” something. And the study counts loss of income due to illness as a contributing factors. Inability to work isn’t the same thing as a “medical debt.”

via factcheck.org

Bottom line: contributing factors are not causes. Seeing as most of those same people probably paid taxes, you could also make the same argument that 100% of bankruptcies are caused by taxes.

Exactly. It’s idiotic no matter how you slice it.

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  • http://wellescent.com/ Wellescent Health

    By stating that illness or medical bills contributed to the 62% of bankruptcies, the researchers are being accurate. They cannot factually state that illnesses or medical bills caused the bankruptcies because people may well have had other debts like a mortgage, car payments, etc. and it is the overall debt load that forces one into bankruptcy.

    However, of these large debts, only the medical bills or accidents are unpredictable, but they can be large. The whole purpose of mortgages and regular car payments is to provide a stable means of repayment. A sudden need for surgery for someone who is healthy or has a long running condition is not something that most can keep reserve cash around to handle.

  • http://wellescent.com/ Wellescent Health

    By stating that illness or medical bills contributed to the 62% of bankruptcies, the researchers are being accurate. They cannot factually state that illnesses or medical bills caused the bankruptcies because people may well have had other debts like a mortgage, car payments, etc. and it is the overall debt load that forces one into bankruptcy.

    However, of these large debts, only the medical bills or accidents are unpredictable, but they can be large. The whole purpose of mortgages and regular car payments is to provide a stable means of repayment. A sudden need for surgery for someone who is healthy or has a long running condition is not something that most can keep reserve cash around to handle.

  • http://www.insignificantthoughts.com/ Vinny

    Take a look at the frame grab. It doesn’t say “contributed to,” it says “caused.”

  • http://www.insignificantthoughts.com Vinny

    Take a look at the frame grab. It doesn’t say “contributed to,” it says “caused.”