As the debate over health-care reform heats up, you’re certain to see media reports about this study on medical bankruptcies claiming that 62.1 percent of bankruptcy filings in 2007 were caued by medical debt. The argument is that, unlike a government-run health system, the current U.S. hybrid is a failure because it can cause the financial ruin of people facing high medical costs.

At the American Enterprise Institute blog,  Aparna Mathur opens holes in the study’s thesis you could drive a semi through. Here’s a big one: 

It seems that the authors are reluctant to take their respondents seriously when it comes to an understanding of their indebtedness. The survey clearly states that only 29 percent of the respondents believed that their bankruptcy was actually caused by medical bills.

I was suspicious of the study to begin with, as two of its authors, Dr. David Himmelstein and Dr. Steffie Woolhandler, have been unabashed cheerleaders for a single-payer system for nearly two decades. The study also relies on telephone surveys, making it doubly dubious. Guess the authors think most reporters aren’t sophisticted enough to locate such glaring flaws in a report published by a presumably reputable medical journal.