Statistics about medical debt in 2022

An impactful new report on medical debt concludes: "Sick and struggling to pay, 100 million people in the U.S. live with medical debt".  This report is the product of a reporting partnership between KHN and NPR exploring the scale, impact, and causes of medical debt in America.  What they found is shocking.

This is a summary of the statistics cited in the report:

• "more than 100 million people in America ― including 41% of adults ― [are] beset by a health care system that is systematically pushing patients into debt on a mass scale".
• "In the past five years, more than half of U.S. adults report they've gone into debt because of medical or dental bills".
• "A quarter of adults with health care debt owe more than $5,000."
• "about 1 in 5 with any amount of debt said they don't expect to ever pay it off."
• "much of the debt that patients accrue is hidden as credit card balances, loans from family, or payment plans to hospitals and other medical providers."
• "Debt levels in U.S. counties with the highest rates of disease can be three or four times what they are in the healthiest counties".
• "debt is also deepening racial disparities".
• "[Debt] is preventing Americans from saving for retirement, investing in their children's educations, or laying the traditional building blocks for a secure future, such as borrowing for college or buying a home."
• "Debt from health care is nearly twice as common for adults under 30 as for those 65 and older".
• "About 1 in 7 people with debt said they've been denied access to a hospital, doctor, or other provider because of unpaid bills".
• "about two-thirds [of patients] have put off care they or a family member need because of cost."
• "Patient debt is piling up despite the landmark 2010 Affordable Care Act."
• "Hospitals recorded their most profitable year on record in 2019, notching an aggregate profit margin of 7.6%".
• "As of [2021], 58% of debts recorded in collections were for a medical bill".
• "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".
• "About 50 million adults ― roughly 1 in 5 ― are paying off bills for their own care or a family member's through an installment plan with a hospital or other provider".
• "One in 10 owe money to a friend or family member who covered their medical or dental bills".
• "About 1 in 6 adults are paying off a medical or dental bill they put on a card."
• "collective medical debt totaled at least $195 billion in 2019, larger than the economy of Greece."
• "the typical cardholder's monthly balance jumped 34% after a major medical expense ... for a year, they remained about 10% above where they had been before the medical expense."
• "About a third owe less than $1,000".
• "About 1 in 8 medically indebted Americans owe $10,000 or more".
• "Although most expect to repay their debt, 23% said it will take at least three years; 18% said they don't expect to ever pay it off."
• "Nearly half of Americans in households making more than $90,000 a year have incurred health care debt in the past five years".
• "Women are more likely than men to be in debt."
• "parents more commonly have health care debt than people without children."
• "Debt is most widespread in the South".
• "Black adults are 50% more likely and Hispanic adults 35% more likely than whites to owe money for care."
• "Medical debt in Washington, D.C.'s predominantly minority neighborhoods is nearly four times as common as in white neighborhoods."
• "debt from health care peaks for typical Americans in their late 20s and early 30s, then declines as they get older."
• "In the 100 U.S. counties with the highest levels of chronic disease, nearly a quarter of adults have medical debt on their credit records, compared with fewer than 1 in 10 in the healthiest counties."
• "In California, there was an 11% decline in the monthly use of payday loans after the state expanded [health insurance] coverage through the law."
• "Federal regulations allow out-of-pocket maximums on individual plans up to $8,700."
• "Last year the average annual deductible for a single worker with job-based coverage topped $1,400, almost four times what it was in 2006 ... Family deductibles can top $10,000."
• "From 2012 to 2016, prices for medical care surged 16%, almost four times the rate of overall inflation".
• "6 in 10 working-age adults with coverage have gone into debt getting care in the past five years, a rate only slightly lower than the uninsured."
  _ "About a third of seniors have owed money for care".
• "37% of [seniors with medical debt] said they or someone in their household have been forced to cut spending on food, clothing, or other essentials because of what they owe; 12% said they've taken on extra work."

Credit for these statistics goes to the "Diagnosis: Debt" initiative, KHN, and NPR.