HealthDay Reporter
MONDAY, Sept. 19, 2022 HealthDay News — A few weeks after your hospital stay, your bill arrives. You can’t believe it. This is possible even if you have excellent health. Insurance for healthAnd, even more important, how will it be paid?
Unfortunately, you’re not alone. Nearly one in five American households and more than one in ten American adults have this problem. medical debtA new study has found that this is the case. Even worse, medical debt can increase your risk of losing your home, not being able rent, pay your mortgage, or paying your utilities.
“Medical debt is incredibly common and it is toxic,” said study author Dr. Steffie Woolhandler. She is a Hunter College distinguished professor and a primary care physician in New York City.
It’s a vicious cycle, said Woolhandler, also a lecturer in medicine at Harvard Medical School in Boston and a research associate for Public Citizen’s Health Research Group, a nonprofit consumer advocacy organization.
“People get sick and they go into medical debt, and this causes food insecurity and housing insecurities, which makes them even sicker, so then they need more medical care and incur even more medical debt,” she said.
What’s the bottom line? “They get sicker and poorer and sicker and poorer,” Woolhandler explained.
For the study, researchers crunched data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2018, 2019 and 2020 Surveys of Income and Program Participation for a group of people who had participated for all three years. These data were used to determine the impact of medical debts.
The study found that the average amount of medical debt for adults was approximately $2,000 and that for households in the U.S., it was around $4,600.
Even among people with insurance, medical debt was quite common.
“There have been other reports about medical debt, but this is the first time that we have actually been able to link it to consequences like going without food and losing housing,” Woolhandler said.
Americans of middle income were twice as likely to have medical debt than those with lower incomes. Study found that those with military insurance had less than 7% of their medical debt.
The researchers found that those who were newly disabled, hospitalized or have lost their health insurance were at the highest risk of incurring new medical debts.
It’s time to fix this mess, and it’s possible, Woolhandler said.
“Polls show that the majority of Americans would support a system where the government pays all medical bills,” she said.
The No Surprises Act, which was recently passed, made things a bit easier. This bill was approved in January. It protects individuals with insurance against unexpected medical costs resulting from out-of-network or unplanned coverage.
She said that there are many things you can do in order to reduce your chance of getting into crippling medical debt. “If you go into the hospital and get a bill that you can’t pay, try to negotiate,” she said. “You are in much better shape talking to the hospital than a collection agency.”
She said that many hospitals have financial assistance programs. She suggested that you always verify the accuracy of any medical bills.
The results were published online September 16, 2009. JAMA Network Open .
Allison Sesso serves as the president/CEO of RIP Medical Debt. This Long Island City, N.Y.-based non-profit aims to help people out of medical debt.
“Medical debt isn’t just a mark on one’s credit score. We know it prevents patients from seeking further care or they’re denied care,” said Sesso, who has no ties to the new study.
“Medical debt does not just affect the uninsured: People with health insurance are at risk of medical debt due to high out-of-pocket costs,” she added.
Why? Why? DeductibleEmployer-sponsored insurance has seen steady growth. “Ensuring that people have access to affordable, robust and low-deductible health insurance plans is the best way to close the health insurance gap,” Sesso said.
Implementing Medicaid expansion — which would cover more low-income Americans — in holdout states is an immediate way to help millions of people avoid medical debt, she added. Access to financial aid must be easy for people who go to the hospital or see a doctor.
“We’d like to see a ban on extraordinary collection practices like lawsuits, wage garnishments, and liens on homes for individuals who simply cannot pay an astronomical medical debt,” Sesso said.
For more information, click here
RIP Medical Debt provides tips for how to avoid medical debt.
SOURCES: Steffie Woolhandler, MD, MPH, primary care doctor, distinguished professor, CUNY’s Hunter College, New York City, lecturer, medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, research associate, Public Citizen Health Research Group; Allison Sesso, President and CEO, RIP Medical Debt, Long Island City, N.Y.; JAMA Network Open, Sept. 16, 2022. Online
