Medical debt

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Medical debt refers to the debt incurred by an individual due to health care costs and related expenses.

Medical debt differs from other forms of debt, as it usually happens by chance or without defects. People do not plan to fall ill or hurt themselves, and health care is often unavoidable; medical debt is often treated with more sympathy than other types of debt that generate the advice that people do not have to try to turn it into credit card debt.

Video Medical debt

United States

Medical debt is a very important phenomenon in the United States. In less developed countries, low-income people who need treatment will often use whatever assistance they can get from a country or NGO without having to borrow, and in most developed countries, the general coverage of health care costs is comprehensive. But in the United States, even when patients have insurance coverage, including coverage under Patient Protection and the Affordable Care Act of 2010, substantial medical costs remain the responsibility of the patient. As a result, medical debt has been discovered by a 2009 study to be the main cause of personal bankruptcy.

The 2007 survey found about 70 million Americans have difficulty paying for medical care or having medical debt. Studies have found people most likely to collect huge medical debts when they do not have health insurance to cover the cost of necessary medications, treatments, or procedures - in 2009 about 50 million Americans did not have health coverage. However, about 60% of those found to have medical debt are insured. Health insurance plans rarely cover all and all health-related costs; for the insured person, the gap between insurance coverage and health care affordability manifests as medical debt. As with any type of debt, medical debt can cause a variety of personal and financial problems - including having to go without food and heat plus reluctance to seek further medical care. Aggressive debt collection has been highlighted as an aggravating factor. A study has found about 63% of adults with medical debt avoid further medical care, compared to only 19% of adults who do not have such debt.

According to a study conducted in 2012 by Demo that among 62% indebted households cite out-of-pocket medical expenses as a contribution to their debt.

Maps Medical debt

Medical debt in bankruptcy

Medical debt is considered an unsecured debt priority in chapter 7 bankruptcy. In other words, medical debt is paid only after the asset is applied to the debts of creditors holding priority debt, and thus medical debt is often discharged as a whole at the end of bankruptcy proceedings. If a bankrupt asset has sufficient assets so that a portion of the medical debt is paid through bankruptcy, all remaining medical debt included in the bankruptcy case will be discharged.

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See also

• Fill in the master description
• Health care in the United States
• Health Economics
• Health insurance
• Underinsured

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References

Source of the article : Wikipedia