Can’t be, 0bamacare was going to cover everybody’s medical costs.
Nearly 20 percent of U.S. consumers with credit records — 42.9 million people — have unpaid medical debts, according to a new report by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
The findings suggest that many Americans are being trapped by debt because they are confused by the notices they get from hospitals and insurance companies about the cost of treatment. As a result, millions of Americans may be surprised to find they are stuck with lower credit scores, making it harder for them to borrow to buy a home or an automobile.
“When people fall ill and end up at the hospital with unexpected bills, far too often they have entered into a financial maze,” CFPB director Richard Cordray said in a speech to be delivered Thursday in Oklahoma City.
On average, a person with only overdue medical debt owes $1,766. Someone with unpaid medical bills and other sources of debt — possibly credit cards or back taxes — owes an average of $5,638. More than half of all debt on credit reports stems from medical expenses.[…]
The latest CFPB analysis overlaps with a separate study released in July by the Urban Institute, a Washington, DC-based think tank.
The Urban Institute study found that the share of Americans with debt in collections has remained relatively constant, despite the country as a whole whittling down the size of its credit card and other debts since the Great Recession ended in the middle of 2009. That points to a sizeable share of Americans who are not only struggling to understand medical bills but also have no choice but to take on debts they have little chance of repaying.
The Urban Institute found that 35.1 percent of people with credit records had been reported to collections for debt that averaged $5,178, based on September 2013 records.