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Title:Borrowing to Stay Healthy: How Credit Card Debt is Related to Medical Expenses
Copyright Date: Jan. 2007
Pages: 32
Authors:Cindy Zeldin, Demos; and Mark Rukavina, The Access Project
Description: In collaboration with Demos, The Access Project produced a report documenting how low and middle income households are turning to credit cards to pay for medical care. The report findings are based on a national telephone survey of over 1,100 low and middle income households.
Report highlights include the finding that nearly one-third (29%) of respondents reported that medical expenses contributed to their current level of credit card debt. In households with medical debt, the average credit card debt was significantly higher (46%) that in those households without medical expenses as a contributing factor in their overall credit card debt.
While uninsured respondents had the highest levels of credit care debt, even respondents with health insurance were not shielded from the medical debt problem. These findings, combined with the industry trend of increasing deductibles and other out-of-pocket costs, call into question whether it is prudent to rely on borrowing as a method to pay for needed health care.
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Topics: Medical Debt