re: Arkansas doctor erases cancer patients' medical debt totaling $650,000

So he gets to claim it as a
Loss right? Should be a tax benefit there somewhere for writing off $600K in bad debt. Win/win for the doc.

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You are thinking the doctors of the future are going to have to pay 500k for a medical degree.

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they shouldn't have to, IMO...

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The government gives it to them for free.

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works well for Germany... their students don't have to pay for college, as the government pays 100% of the cost...

I'm all for college being more affordable for students, perhaps even going all the way to being free... that being said, if it were up to me, there'd be a shite ton less colleges, no more "associate's" degrees, and getting into college would be hard as frick, on the same level as getting into Ivy League schools/Stanford/MIT, etc... it would be for the truly best and brightest students... I'd also invest more in trade schools/work training programs, as many people in college don't really need to be there in the first place... doing this will bring down the total bill of paying for college for students, making it a more sustainable option, as well as making it make sense...

It all depends on how his taxes were done for years, but theres a good chance he'll be carrying that loss forward for years, paying "no taxes" like the evil Donald.

Good for the doc. and good for the poor folks he helped out too. Beats the hell out of paying the .gov a dime.

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He closed the clinic. Sounds like he realized he would never get paid anyways and went bankrupt but put a positive spin on it by “forgiving” debt that he would never get paid for anyways

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I suspect most of the 200 patients were deceased and he was going after estates or family left behind.

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you can’t write off money you never had.

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Is this a medicine only rule? Company I work for writes off bad debt every year. I have no idea how they do it and I’m sure they’d rather get paid, but I know they always manage to take “advantage” of the bad situation.
And I can assure you, they never had the money to begin with either.

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Any system that forces you to choose between dying or living, and having debt you’ll never live long enough to pay off is in fact a shitty system.

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Cancer research isn't free here nor in Pakistan. Soo.. Someone's got to pay for it.

I believe it is a rule specific for MDs. Not sure if other professions fall under the same category. I do know that hospitals have different rules than doctors; they can charge the 20% copay based on what they bill, where doctors can only charge 20% of what is allowed by insurance only. That’s why the hospital bill is so astronomical even though they know the insurance allowable is much lower.

Well most drug companies waive or fund treatment for their products for anyone that is uninsured & makes under 70 k so if you have ZERO insurance & make over 70k you don’t get free drug but they have other avenues/ for the patients to get drug. NOW HOLD ON what is he writing off his fixed costs of running the clinic? Sorry he does not get an award for this he knows the math. Nope nope Nope

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According to an article at www.thebalance.com I was reading yesterday, health care costs are the #1 cause of bankruptcy for America’s families. Now, this is not news to me as I frequently counsel with individuals and families who are facing substantial medical and other debt. But what caught my attention was the magnitude of the problem.

According to the article, 56 million people struggle with medical debt each year. About 8.9% of these people could not afford to pay anything towards these medical debts. Eleven (11) million of these people ran up high interest credit card debt to pay their medical debts.

Think about that for a moment. These people did not have the income to pay their medical debts so they took out a high interest loan to do so. So, for example, if such a person owed $1,000.00 in medical debt and charged it to their credit card at say 28% interest, how much more money that they don’t have will they need to finally pay the “medical” bill? Where is that money going to come from? How do you break out of that cycle?

Turning Medical Debt Into More Debt
The article contained another sad statistic. Ninety (90%) percent of those who had homes took out a second mortgage on their homes to pay their medical debt. This means that these people have turned their medical debt into mortgage debt to deal with the situation. Such a tactic is rarely, if ever, a smart option.

According to the article, these people are not the very poor in our society. Rather, they are middle class people. Two-thirds of them were homeowners. Sixty (60%) percent of them were college graduates. Some had private insurance and still had to cough up an average of $17,749.00 per family. These were people who were facing large and unexpected out-of-pocket costs for health care.

And, finally, according to the article, sixty-two (62%) of the two million personal bankruptcies filed each year are the result of medical debt. So, if you are facing overwhelming medical bills that you cannot possibly afford to pay, you are clearly not alone. Bankruptcy may indeed be the best (and perhaps only) way to address the situation.

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LINK

Should have said “Merry Christmas.”