WASHINGTON — Americans are struggling to pay medical bills and accumulating medical debt at an increasing rate, according to a survey released today.
“A perfect storm of negative economic trends is battering working families across the United States,” said the survey by the Commonwealth Fund, a private foundation that supports independent research on health care.
“Health care costs are climbing much more rapidly than incomes or the growth in the overall economy,” said Sara Collins, assistant vice president of the foundation and one of the authors of the study.
Two-thirds of the working-age population was uninsured, underinsured, reported a medical-bill problem or did not get needed health care because of cost in 2007.
More than two in five adults in the 19-to-64 age group reported problems paying medical bills or had accumulated medical debt in 2007, up from one in three in 2005. Their difficulties included not being able to afford care when needed, running up medical debts, or having to change their lifestyle to repay medical debts.
Health care costs are limiting expenditures on daily necessities. Of those facing mounting medical bills, 39 percent had used all their savings, 30 percent had incurred large credit-card debt, and 29 percent said medical bills left them unable to pay for basic necessities such as food, heat or rent.
The survey found a sharp rise in the number of people spending more than 10 percent of their income on health care. Among people with annual income below $20,000, the figure more than doubled to 53 percent from 26 percent in 2001.
The survey found 28 percent of working-age adults in 2007 were without insurance at some time during the previous year, up from 24 percent in 2001.
