About 100 million Americans are collectively in debt to the tune of US$200 billion from their medical care, an amount nearly equivalent to that of the Greek economy, the Associated Press reported Thursday, citing the Kaiser Family Foundation.
“Legislators in at least a dozen states and the U.S. Congress have proposed laws aimed at reducing the financial burden that has pushed many people into untenable situations: forgoing needed care for fear of additional debt, take out a second mortgage to pay for cancer treatment or cut grocery budgets to meet payments,” the article reads.
Some bills seek to create medical debt relief programs or protect personal assets from collections, while others seek to lower interest rates, prevent medical debt from jeopardizing credit or to demand greater transparency of healthcare costs, according to the article.
For patients, medical debt has become a leading cause of personal bankruptcy, with an estimated $88 billion in recoveries nationwide, according to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
About 530,000 people report being bankrupt each year, partly due to medical bills and lack of work, the article said, citing a 2019 American Journal of Public Health study.
