Americans are no strangers to medical debt, and
the burden is most severe in Mississippi, where nearly 40 percent of
adults under age 65 owe hospitals or doctors, according to the Urban
Institute. But the men and women carrying that debt are not always poor
— they’re increasingly middle class.
And their inability, or refusal, to pay their bills is straining hospital budgets and threatening the availability of care.
“You’d be surprised when you look through our bad
debt rolls,” said Alvin Hoover, CEO of King’s Daughters Medical Center
in Brookhaven, Miss. “Some drive a 2002 pickup truck, and some drive a
2016 pickup truck. Those are the ones that get under your skin — where
you went to buy a 2016 truck when you still owe the hospital $4,000.”
Mississippi, where the median household income
hovers near $40,000, has one of nation’s highest rates of uninsured and
underinsured adults. As a result, the state has one of the highest
percentage of adults who avoid doctors due to potential costs, said
Therese Hanna, executive director at the Center for Mississippi Health
Policy.
At the same time, medical debt remains the
leading cause of bankruptcies, according to Roy Mitchell, executive
director of the Mississippi Health Advocacy Program.
This looks like a story of bad choices rather than bad decisions. What do you think?
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