Do churches cause asthma? That’s the wierd conclusion of a sweeping study of 287 Chicago neighborhoods published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.

The current economic downturn can be measured by all kinds of economic indicators–including some showing up in hospitals and doctors’ offices around the country, where surveys show that patients are deferring non-emergency care and not showing up for appointments. In response, some doctors are offering special rates and payment plans. Some are even treating patients in dire straits for free.

Every 90 seconds, an American family is forced to file for bankruptcy–not because they’ve mismanaged their finances but because their savings have been wiped out by medical expenses.

That shocking statistic is part of a new report from Harvard Medical School and Ohio University researchers that compares 2001 and 2007 bankruptcy data in the U.S. The experts found that 60 percent of all bankruptcies in 2007 were driven by unaffordable medical bills, up 50 percent from six years earlier. The odds that a bankruptcy resulted principally from medical expenses was almost 2.4 times greater in 2007 than in 2001.

That’s troubling enough. Even more disturbing: many of the families forced to declare bankruptcy had health insurance. Either it didn’t cover many of their expenses or the policies were cancelled when families needed them most. Among bankrupt families, those with health insurance had out-of-pocket expenses averaging $17,749. Those without insurance found themselves socked with bills averaging $26,971. Among families that had health insurance but then lost it, out-of-pocket expenses totalled an average of $22,568.

Those numbers won’t surprise many Americans who have gone in for health care recently, even basic recommended preventive care and screening. In our family of two, for instance, we were recently hit with more than $8,000 in out-of-pocket expenses after we followed our doctors’ orders and underwent screening colonoscopies. And we have insurance!

The latest statistics underscore a stubborn fact: Fixing the nation’s economy requires fixing the health care system.