March 4, 2024
Findings from a recent study suggest that when U.S. consumers have medical debt in collections, they are likely to have worse health status, more premature deaths and higher rates of mortality. Health policies that would increase access to affordable health care, such as expanding health insurance coverage, including eligibility for Medicaid, could improve population health, the researchers wrote.
Published March 4, 2024, in JAMA Open Network, the study was designed to answer the question of whether medical debt in collections was associated with population health at the county level. The article was, “Associations of Medical Debt With Health Status, Premature Death, and Mortality in the U.S.,” and the researchers were affiliated with the American Cancer Society in Atlanta and Department of Public Health Sciences, University of Virginia School of Medicine, in Charlottesville.
The researchers collected data on medical debt, health status and mortality for residents in 2,943 of the 3,143 U.S. counties. The findings show a higher share of the population had medical debt that was associated with more days of poor physical and mental health, more years of life lost, and higher mortality rates for all causes.
On average in all 2,943 counties, 19.8% of the population had medical debt, the researchers noted. Also, a 1 percentage point increase in the population with medical debt was associated with 18.3 more physically unhealthy days and 17.9 more mentally unhealthy days per 1,000 people per month, the study shows.
That 1 percentage point increase in medical debt also was associated with 1.12 years of life lost per 1,000 people, and an increase of 7.51 per 100,000 person-years in the age-adjusted all-cause mortality rate, the researchers noted. Using the statistic 100,000 person-years means the researchers assessed the health of 100,000 people for one year, according to this article.
The association of medical debt and higher mortality rates were consistent for all leading causes of death, including cancer, heart disease and suicide per 100,000 person-years. Similar patterns were observed for associations between the median amount of medical debt and the aforementioned health outcomes.