FILE- In this Feb. 9, 2018, file photo, a nurse hooks up an IV to a flu patient at Upson Regional Medical Center in Thomaston, Ga. Researchers found in a study of credit reports that more than 2 percent of adults had medical bills under $200 sent to a collections agency. More than half of the annual medical collections were for less than $600, according to the study, which examined 2016 credit reports for more than 4 million unidentified people. WASHINGTON, D. C.
The Legal Aid Society of Cleveland helped King stop the lawsuit, but the nursing home is still seeking payment from her mother’s estate. King told the committee chaired by U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, an Ohio Democrat, that there’s “no reason I should go into massive debt so that my mother could live out her final months in a safe and comfortable place, with her basic needs met.
At Tuesday’s hearing, Brown said an estimated 43 million Americans have $88 billion of medical debt on their credit reports, and the problem is growing. He said low-income families, Black and Hispanic households, veterans, young adults, and older Americans are hit particularly hard, with harassment by debt collectors who get a cut of anything they collect worsening “this already exhausting experience.
Toomey noted that average medical debts fell by 40% over the last decade even though medical spending increased by 70%. He attributed some of the debt declines to an improved economy that helped low-wage workers make significant gains in income, the expansion of Medicaid, and the Affordable Care Act’s enactment.