US has a giant medical debt of $195 billion: Study
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American citizens are spending their money savings on medical bills instead of using them for buying food, clothes, and household products, a study shows.
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About 16 million US citizens owe more than $1,000 in medical bills.
Research issued by the Peterson Center on Healthcare and the Kaiser Family Foundation found that "Americans owe at least $195 billion of medical debt," Axios reported on Friday.
According to Axios, American citizens are spending their money savings on paying medical bills instead of using them for buying food, clothes, and household products, "despite 90% of the population having some kind of health coverage."
The website estimated that "about 16 million people, or 6% of U.S. adults, owe more than $1,000 in medical bills, and 3 million people owe more than $10,000."
The data shows that the huge medical debts "fall disproportionately on people with disabilities, those in generally poor health, Black Americans and people living in the South or in non-Medicaid expansion states," Axios noted.
"For people with significant medical needs, medical debt may build up over time. People living with cancer, for example, have higher levels of debt than individuals who have never had cancer," the study shows.
The issued study - that targeted adults with more than $250 in unpaid bills since December 2019 - found that 16% of privately-insured adults say they would need to take on credit card debt to meet an unexpected $400 medical expense, while 7% would borrow money from friends or family," the website highlighted.
Although a new federal decree limits unexpected expenses, the ban does not help much in lowering the medical bills of a huge number of US citizens, the research pointed out.
It is noteworthy that the US administration has been deeply involved in financing war through arms sales and weapon supplies for countries instead of supporting its own healthcare system.
