This is a classic case of cherry-picking a number from a scientific study and twisting it to make a political point.
Sanders's statements — "500,000 people go bankrupt every year because they cannot pay their outrageous medical bills" and "500,000 Americans will go bankrupt this year from medical bills" — are unambiguous. He's saying medical debts caused those 500,000 bankruptcies. However, correlation is not causation, and the study he's citing doesn't establish causation for all 500,000 bankruptcy cases.
One of the authors sent us rough estimates showing that Sanders might be on target, but those numbers deserve scientific scrutiny before they can be taken as fact.
In the meantime, the statistic Sanders's campaign cited includes bankrupt debtors for whom medical expenses may have been a minor or relatively small contributing factor. A different, peer-reviewed study arrived at a much different conclusion, suggesting the medical bankruptcy rate is far lower, although it measured only hospital patients and not all types of medical debt.
The omissions and twists are significant enough to merit Three Pinocchios for Sanders.
