Jan. 28 (Bloomberg) — One in four U.S. families struggled to pay medical bills in 2012, and 1 in 10 said they had costs they couldn't pay at all, according to a government survey.
The survey released today from the National Center for Health Statistics at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also found the lack of health insurance increased the burden of medical debt.
Major provisions of the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act take effect this year as the Obama administration seeks to extend health-care coverage to most of the nation's 48 million uninsured. The law may help lessen some of the financial burdens of medical care, said Karen Pollitz, a fellow at the Kaiser Family Foundation and lead author of a separate study on medical debt published Jan. 7.
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