Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: By recent polling, health care affordability is one of the most important issues for American voters. 1 This is unsurprising given the significant financial burden of medical care in our country.According to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, medical debt is the most common type of debt reported on consumer credit reports, and studies suggest that medical debt contributes to more than 500,000 bankruptcies a year.2,3 Recent polling indicates that a record number of individuals-nearly 40%-delay medical care due to cost. 4 In light of this burden, political attention and reform related to medical debt is increasing and has been discussed by both leading Presidential candidates for the current election cycle.This series therefore aims to cast medical debt as one barometer of the American healthcare system and its functioning, by exploring through three columns how high prices of care are passed through to patients, efforts to mitigate bills for low-income and vulnerable individuals and, when these mitigation efforts fail, the experience of patients in medical debt collections.In each piece, we will highlight a selection of recent legislative proposals through the lens of reducing medical debt and financial toxicity.We begin with the high prices of health care in the United States and how such burdens are shifted to patients.
Source: Journal of Hospital Medicine
DOI: 10.1002/jhm.70001
Authors: Blake N. Shultz, Ahmed M. Ahmed, Luke Messac
Institution: Brigham and Women's Hospital
Language: English
Subfield: Economics and Econometrics
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W4407548095