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Your Money or Your Life: Debt Collection in American Medicine
A riveting exposé of medical debt collection in America ― and the profound financial and physical costs eroding patient trust in medicine
For the crime of falling sick without wealth, Americans today face lawsuits, wage garnishment, home foreclosure, and even jail time.
Yet who really profits from aggressive medical debt collection? And how does this predatory system affect patients and doctors responsible for their care?
Your Money or Your Life reveals how medical debt collection became a multibillion-dollar industry and how everyday Americans are made to pay the price. Emergency physician and historian Luke Messac weaves patient stories into a history of law, finance, and medicine to show how debt and debt collection are destroying the foundational trust between doctors and patients at the heart of American healthcare. The fight to stop aggressive collection tactics has brought together people from all corners of the political spectrum. But if we want to better protect the sick from financial ruin, we have to understand how we got here.
With wit and clarity, Your Money or Your Life asks us all to rethink the purpose of our modern healthcare system and consider whom it truly serves.
For the crime of falling sick without wealth, Americans today face lawsuits, wage garnishment, home foreclosure, and even jail time.
Yet who really profits from aggressive medical debt collection? And how does this predatory system affect patients and doctors responsible for their care?
Your Money or Your Life reveals how medical debt collection became a multibillion-dollar industry and how everyday Americans are made to pay the price. Emergency physician and historian Luke Messac weaves patient stories into a history of law, finance, and medicine to show how debt and debt collection are destroying the foundational trust between doctors and patients at the heart of American healthcare. The fight to stop aggressive collection tactics has brought together people from all corners of the political spectrum. But if we want to better protect the sick from financial ruin, we have to understand how we got here.
With wit and clarity, Your Money or Your Life asks us all to rethink the purpose of our modern healthcare system and consider whom it truly serves.
200 pages, Hardcover
Published November 1, 2023
9 people are currently reading
1704 people want to read
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
August 31, 2025
This was a great read, containing new ways to see medical debt. This book really shows the author's knowledge from his life, and his view on this topic. Luke Messac gives so many instances and explanations of medical debt, that anyone can be this up and learn. Part 1 of this book explains medical debt in the 19th and 20th century. Part 2 explains all the people involved, who is affected, to who is profiting. Part 3 gives his view on medical debt today, and for the future. His experience as an emergency physician shows that he has seen it all. This allows him to work with people who had medical debt they could not pay. This book shows the deep flaws in our unfair system.
Displaying 1 of 1 review