Medical Bill Problems Steady for U.S. Families, 2007-2010

By Anna Sommers, Peter J. Cunningham
Center for Studying Health System Change, December 2011

While problems paying medical bills stabilized in recent years, the proportion of Americans in families with medical bill problems remained significantly higher in 2010 compared with 2003 – 20.9 percent vs. 15.1 percent. And, in 2010, many people in families with problems paying medical bills continued to experience severe financial consequences, with about two-thirds reporting problems paying for other necessities and a quarter considering bankruptcy.

Underscoring uninsured people’s lack of financial protection from health care expenses, uninsured children and working-age adults in 2010 were more likely to have medical bill problems (31.5%) than their insured counterparts (20.2%).

http://www.hschange.org/CONTENT/1268/

Although the uninsured would be expected to have problems paying medical bills, we should be very concerned that one-fifth of insured individuals under age 65 also face significant medical debt.

Most of these individuals are insured through their work. Since the state insurance exchange subsidies for purchase of insurance and for out-of-pocket expenses will not apply to employer-sponsored plans, it can be anticipated that the Affordable Care Act will not reduce medical bill problems for a majority of our workforce.

When we know that the Affordable Care Act will fall far short of what we need to ensure financial security in the face of medical need, why aren’t we as a nation busy with efforts to enact a program that actually would work?