Medical debt sending many over financial brink

A Kaiser Family Foundation poll conducted in April found that 28% of Americans reported that they or their families had had a serious problem paying health insurance or medical bills because of changes in the economy. Now, the connection between medical debt and the current credit crisis is strong enough to prompt Mike Leavitt, head of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, to declare at a recent news conference, "If we had any idea how many mortgages were foreclosed because people were crowded out by medical issues ... Healthcare costs are at the heart of many of the things happening."