Tuesday's List: Ten Leading Causes of Bankruptcy

I was watching the U.S. Senate floor proceedings on C-Span2 this morning when Senator Dick Durbin (D, IL) spoke about the proposed Republican tax reform bill...specifically its provision eliminating deductions for medical expenses.  Durbin pointed out that many households have large accrued medical expenses and need this deduction to keep themselves afloat...he said there were more than 300,000 in his home state of Illinois alone.  This is nothing minor: as the senator stated, medical expenses account for the number one cause of bankruptcies in this country...and it's not even close.  Well, Durbin's speech made me wonder exactly what are the primary causes for bankruptcy, so afterward I did a search and quickly came across Clear Bankruptcy, which seems to be designed to help people in tough financial straits: good for them, I suppose...there are other sites that have similar lists.  On their webpage they listed the top ten causes of bankruptcy, which I've listed below:

1 MEDICAL EXPENSES (42%)
2 JOB LOSS (22%)
3 UNCONTROLLED SPENDING (15%)
4 DIVORCE (8%)
5 UNEXPECTED DISASTER (7%)
6 AVOIDING FORECLOSURE (1.5%)
7 POOR FINANCIAL PLANNING (1.5%)
8 PREVENTING LOSS OF UTILITIES (1%)
9 STUDENT LOANS (1%)
10 PREVENTING REPOSSESSION (1%)

Now I believe that for many of the bankruptcy cases the causes are probably a mixture of different factors coming together for a "perfect financial storm", but it is inarguable that medical expenses present a very big problem for Americans, regardless how well they plan their finances and handle their money. And it's because of our health care system here that, Obamacare notwithstanding, still regards medical treatment more as a privilege than a right.  It is almost academic that as people age their health will decline and more and more serious medical problems will present themselves.  And with the improvement of the medical community's means to handle those problems with often very expensive treatments comes a drastic increase in the costs, which can devastate people's finances, often just as they are either preparing for retirement or already there.  And now one of our political parties apparently wants to aggravate the problem by eliminating medical tax deductions. If this provision of the tax reform bill becomes law, expect that "42%" figure to get higher (other sources already have it as high as 62%)...