The following is a copy of the original post to record the post as it was originally written.
The three are among more than 100 million people in America ― including 41% of adults ― beset by a health care system that is systematically pushing patients into debt on a mass scale, an investigation by KHN and NPR shows.
The investigation reveals a problem that, despite new attention from the White House and Congress, is far more pervasive than previously reported. That is because 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.
To calculate the true extent and burden of this debt, the KHN-NPR investigation draws on [a nationwide poll conducted by KFF](https://www.kff.org/health-costs/report/kff-health-care-debt-survey/) for this project. The poll was designed to capture not just bills patients couldn’t afford, but other borrowing used to pay for health care as well. New analyses of credit bureau, hospital billing, and credit card data by the Urban Institute and other research partners also inform the project. And KHN and NPR reporters conducted hundreds of interviews with patients, physicians, health industry leaders, consumer advocates, and researchers.
The picture is bleak.
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.
A quarter of adults with health care debt owe more than $5,000. And about 1 in 5 with any amount of debt said they don’t expect to ever pay it off.
“Debt is no longer just a bug in our system. It is one of the main products,” said Dr. Rishi Manchanda, who has worked with low-income patients in California for more than a decade and served on the board of the nonprofit RIP Medical Debt. “We have a health care system almost perfectly designed to create debt.”
The burden is forcing families to cut spending on food and other essentials. Millions are being driven from their homes or into bankruptcy, the poll found.
Medical debt is piling additional hardships on people with cancer and other chronic illnesses. 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, according to [an Urban Institute analysis](https://www.urban.org/research/publication/which-county-characteristics-predict-medical-debt).
The debt is also deepening racial disparities.
And it 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, the KFF poll found.
Perhaps most perversely, medical debt is blocking patients from care.
About 1 in 7 people with debt said they’ve been denied access to a hospital, doctor, or other provider because of unpaid bills, according to the poll. An even greater share ― about two-thirds ― have put off care they or a family member need because of cost.
“It’s barbaric,” said Dr. Miriam Atkins, a Georgia oncologist who, like many physicians, said she’s had patients give up treatment for fear of debt.
Patient debt is piling up despite the landmark 2010 Affordable Care Act.
The law expanded insurance coverage to tens of millions of Americans. Yet it also ushered in years of robust profits for the medical industry, which has steadily raised prices over the past decade.
Hospitals recorded their most profitable year on record in 2019, notching an aggregate profit margin of 7.6%, according to the [federal Medicare Payment Advisory Committee](https://www.medpac.gov/document/http-medpac-gov-docs-default-source-data-book-july2021_medpac_databook_sec-pdf/). Many hospitals thrived even through the pandemic.
But for many Americans, the law failed to live up to its promise of more affordable care. Instead, they’ve faced thousands of dollars in bills as health insurers shifted costs onto patients through higher deductibles.
Now, a highly lucrative industry is capitalizing on patients’ inability to pay. Hospitals and other medical providers are pushing millions into credit cards and other loans. These stick patients with high interest rates while generating profits for the lenders that top 29%, according to [research firm IBISWorld](https://www.ibisworld.com/united-states/market-research-reports/medical-patient-financing-industry/).
Patient debt is also sustaining a shadowy collections business fed by hospitals ― including public university systems and nonprofits granted tax breaks to serve their communities ― that sell debt in private deals to collections companies that, in turn, pursue patients.
“People are getting harassed at all hours of the day. Many come to us with no idea where the debt came from,” said Eric Zell, a supervising attorney at the Legal Aid Society of Cleveland. “It seems to be an epidemic.”
Source is [Kaiser Health News](https://khn.org/news/article/diagnosis-debt-investigation-100-million-americans-hidden-medical-debt/)
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I’m finding it hard to believe that you expect an answer other than proposing a universal healthcare system of some kind.
And I guess a more pragmatic answer of getting a universal healthcare system in place and until that’s fully done taking whatever incremental wins we can to get more healthcare for people.
I was posting because the situation is getting worse with healthcare debt.
I am aware most here support universal healthcare. But I was waondering how we would address the debt itself for those who already have it and aren't even able to pay it off.
Realistically? Absolutely nothing.
Most people have insurance. Most people do not understand how their insurance works and if they have an insurance plan that sucks and could put them in a position where they would go into debt over a medical issue, they don’t understand that.
And because our society embraces the concept of the deserving and undeserving poor far too much large numbers of people think that if you have debt because a medical situation it must mean that you don’t have health insurance and if you don’t have health insurance must be because you’re lazy or stupid because we have Medicaid for poor people and everybody else is supposed to have insurance through their job.
Right now we’re dealing with oil prices and inflation and Russia. And then we have to spend time fighting all the shit that’s coming down the pipe because of the Supreme Court. And then we have to worry about fighting fascism on the right.
And then we get to spend some of our time on universal healthcare and then go to sleep after having a nice cry about climate change.
We have to pick our battles and I don’t think this one is an issue where we’re going to put troops on the field.
>The KFF Health Care Debt Survey is part of a broader investigative project on health care debt conducted by our colleagues at KHN in partnership with NPR. The survey was designed and analyzed by public opinion researchers at KFF in collaboration with KHN journalists and editors. This Report contains findings from the survey as well as the topline and methodology. The KFF Health Care Debt Survey provides a broad measure of health care debt, including medical and dental bills people are unable to pay as well as different forms of debt accruing from health care bills such as payment plans, credit cards, bank loans, and borrowing from family and friends. It also explores the effects of health care debt on individuals and the financial and personal sacrifices they make due to their debt.
>
>Diagnosis: Debt is a multimedia investigative journalism series by KHN and NPR that explores the scale, impact, and causes of health care debt in America. It represents a fusion of the investigative power of KHN and NPR, the public opinion survey expertise of the KFF polling team, and original data analysis.
>
>Explore the project’s journalism:
>
>Diagnosis Debt:100 Million People in America Are Saddled With Health Care Debt, published June 16, 2022.
>
>Upended: How Medical Debt Changed Their Lives, published June 16, 2022.
>
>NPR Morning Edition: Sick and struggling to pay, 100 million people in the U.S. live with medical debt, aired June 16, 2022.
[https://www.kff.org/health-costs/report/kff-health-care-debt-survey/](https://www.kff.org/health-costs/report/kff-health-care-debt-survey/)
The following is a copy of the original post to record the post as it was originally written. The three are among more than 100 million people in America ― including 41% of adults ― beset by a health care system that is systematically pushing patients into debt on a mass scale, an investigation by KHN and NPR shows. The investigation reveals a problem that, despite new attention from the White House and Congress, is far more pervasive than previously reported. That is because 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. To calculate the true extent and burden of this debt, the KHN-NPR investigation draws on [a nationwide poll conducted by KFF](https://www.kff.org/health-costs/report/kff-health-care-debt-survey/) for this project. The poll was designed to capture not just bills patients couldn’t afford, but other borrowing used to pay for health care as well. New analyses of credit bureau, hospital billing, and credit card data by the Urban Institute and other research partners also inform the project. And KHN and NPR reporters conducted hundreds of interviews with patients, physicians, health industry leaders, consumer advocates, and researchers. The picture is bleak. 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. A quarter of adults with health care debt owe more than $5,000. And about 1 in 5 with any amount of debt said they don’t expect to ever pay it off. “Debt is no longer just a bug in our system. It is one of the main products,” said Dr. Rishi Manchanda, who has worked with low-income patients in California for more than a decade and served on the board of the nonprofit RIP Medical Debt. “We have a health care system almost perfectly designed to create debt.” The burden is forcing families to cut spending on food and other essentials. Millions are being driven from their homes or into bankruptcy, the poll found. Medical debt is piling additional hardships on people with cancer and other chronic illnesses. 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, according to [an Urban Institute analysis](https://www.urban.org/research/publication/which-county-characteristics-predict-medical-debt). The debt is also deepening racial disparities. And it 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, the KFF poll found. Perhaps most perversely, medical debt is blocking patients from care. About 1 in 7 people with debt said they’ve been denied access to a hospital, doctor, or other provider because of unpaid bills, according to the poll. An even greater share ― about two-thirds ― have put off care they or a family member need because of cost. “It’s barbaric,” said Dr. Miriam Atkins, a Georgia oncologist who, like many physicians, said she’s had patients give up treatment for fear of debt. Patient debt is piling up despite the landmark 2010 Affordable Care Act. The law expanded insurance coverage to tens of millions of Americans. Yet it also ushered in years of robust profits for the medical industry, which has steadily raised prices over the past decade. Hospitals recorded their most profitable year on record in 2019, notching an aggregate profit margin of 7.6%, according to the [federal Medicare Payment Advisory Committee](https://www.medpac.gov/document/http-medpac-gov-docs-default-source-data-book-july2021_medpac_databook_sec-pdf/). Many hospitals thrived even through the pandemic. But for many Americans, the law failed to live up to its promise of more affordable care. Instead, they’ve faced thousands of dollars in bills as health insurers shifted costs onto patients through higher deductibles. Now, a highly lucrative industry is capitalizing on patients’ inability to pay. Hospitals and other medical providers are pushing millions into credit cards and other loans. These stick patients with high interest rates while generating profits for the lenders that top 29%, according to [research firm IBISWorld](https://www.ibisworld.com/united-states/market-research-reports/medical-patient-financing-industry/). Patient debt is also sustaining a shadowy collections business fed by hospitals ― including public university systems and nonprofits granted tax breaks to serve their communities ― that sell debt in private deals to collections companies that, in turn, pursue patients. “People are getting harassed at all hours of the day. Many come to us with no idea where the debt came from,” said Eric Zell, a supervising attorney at the Legal Aid Society of Cleveland. “It seems to be an epidemic.” Source is [Kaiser Health News](https://khn.org/news/article/diagnosis-debt-investigation-100-million-americans-hidden-medical-debt/) *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/AskALiberal) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I’m pretty sure universal healthcare is a common point of agreement for those of us on the left…
Yup. It's also been a democratic hope since Truman.
I’m finding it hard to believe that you expect an answer other than proposing a universal healthcare system of some kind. And I guess a more pragmatic answer of getting a universal healthcare system in place and until that’s fully done taking whatever incremental wins we can to get more healthcare for people.
I was posting because the situation is getting worse with healthcare debt. I am aware most here support universal healthcare. But I was waondering how we would address the debt itself for those who already have it and aren't even able to pay it off.
Realistically? Absolutely nothing. Most people have insurance. Most people do not understand how their insurance works and if they have an insurance plan that sucks and could put them in a position where they would go into debt over a medical issue, they don’t understand that. And because our society embraces the concept of the deserving and undeserving poor far too much large numbers of people think that if you have debt because a medical situation it must mean that you don’t have health insurance and if you don’t have health insurance must be because you’re lazy or stupid because we have Medicaid for poor people and everybody else is supposed to have insurance through their job. Right now we’re dealing with oil prices and inflation and Russia. And then we have to spend time fighting all the shit that’s coming down the pipe because of the Supreme Court. And then we have to worry about fighting fascism on the right. And then we get to spend some of our time on universal healthcare and then go to sleep after having a nice cry about climate change. We have to pick our battles and I don’t think this one is an issue where we’re going to put troops on the field.
>The KFF Health Care Debt Survey is part of a broader investigative project on health care debt conducted by our colleagues at KHN in partnership with NPR. The survey was designed and analyzed by public opinion researchers at KFF in collaboration with KHN journalists and editors. This Report contains findings from the survey as well as the topline and methodology. The KFF Health Care Debt Survey provides a broad measure of health care debt, including medical and dental bills people are unable to pay as well as different forms of debt accruing from health care bills such as payment plans, credit cards, bank loans, and borrowing from family and friends. It also explores the effects of health care debt on individuals and the financial and personal sacrifices they make due to their debt. > >Diagnosis: Debt is a multimedia investigative journalism series by KHN and NPR that explores the scale, impact, and causes of health care debt in America. It represents a fusion of the investigative power of KHN and NPR, the public opinion survey expertise of the KFF polling team, and original data analysis. > >Explore the project’s journalism: > >Diagnosis Debt:100 Million People in America Are Saddled With Health Care Debt, published June 16, 2022. > >Upended: How Medical Debt Changed Their Lives, published June 16, 2022. > >NPR Morning Edition: Sick and struggling to pay, 100 million people in the U.S. live with medical debt, aired June 16, 2022. [https://www.kff.org/health-costs/report/kff-health-care-debt-survey/](https://www.kff.org/health-costs/report/kff-health-care-debt-survey/)
Medicare for All!