A startling number of people in America are saddled with health care debt
Raw StoryElizabeth Woodruff drained her retirement account and took on three jobs after she and her husband were sued for nearly $10,000 by the New York hospital where his infected leg was amputated. In the past five years, more than half of U.S. adults report they’ve gone into debt because of medical or dental bills, the KFF poll found. “It seems to be an epidemic.” In Debt to Hospitals, Credit Cards, and Relatives America’s debt crisis is driven by a simple reality: Half of U.S. adults don’t have the cash to cover an unexpected $500 health care bill, according to the KFF poll. Nearly half of Americans in households making more than $90,000 a year have incurred health care debt in the past five years, the KFF poll found. “There is no reason in this country that people should have medical debt that destroys them,” said George Halvorson, former chief executive of Kaiser Permanente, the nation’s largest integrated medical system and health plan.
History of this topic
UnitedHealthcare killing reignites criticism of insurance industry
Salon
Opinion: Crushing medical debt is turning Americans against their doctors
LA Times
18% drop since 2020 in people with reported medical debt
Associated Press
What Germany’s coal miners can teach America about medical debt
Salon
Why Black Americans are more likely to be saddled with medical debt
NPR
‘Now we have nothing.’ Soaring medical debt causes gut-wrenching sacrifices for patients
LA Times
TWO-THIRDS of Americans are putting off medical care they need
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