The number of Americans with past-due medical bills is unchanged since 2015

Even with increases in cost sharing, the percentage of working-age adults with past-due medical debt has remained the same since 2015, a new report from the Employee Benefit Research Institute found.

“Despite deductibles trending upward alongside coinsurance rates and copays for nearly two decades, we found the share of adults with past-due medical bills has remained stable over the past six years and has decreased slightly over the past decade,” says Paul Fronstin, director of health benefits research for EBRI. “The data presented in this paper are timely given the recent announcement that the three major credit bureaus are overhauling how medical debt is reflected on credit reports.”

The report explores the relationship between past-due medical bills and demographics. Among the key findings:

• Since 2015, the percentage of Americans who reported past-due medical bills has remained in the low 20% range, down from 26% in 2012.
• Compared with other sources of debt, Americans were less likely to report that they had past-due medical bills.
• Women were slightly more likely than men to report that they had past-due medical bills.
• The likelihood of having past-due medical bills increased with age for younger adults but decreased with age for older adults.
• Black adults were more likely than other race and ethnicity groups to report that they had past-due medical bills.
• Adults with a high school degree or less were more likely than those with a college or graduate degree to report that they had past-due medical bills.
• As income increased, the odds of having past-due medical bills decreased.
• Health insurance and living in a Medicaid expansion state reduced the percentage of individuals reporting that they had past-due medical bills.
• Past-due medical bills were highly correlated with a lower level of use of health care services.
• Individuals with past-due medical bills were more likely than those without them to report several other financial challenges.

Read more: 100 million people in U.S. saddled with health care debt

“The share of adults with past-due medical bills decreased slightly over the past decade,” the report concludes. “Further, workers reported having past-due medical bills less frequently than other types of debt, such as revolving credit card debt or non-bank loans. Still, the fact that the prevalence of past-due medical bills has not changed despite rising out-of-pocket costs, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, is not a justification for complacency on the part of policymakers or employers. Inflation increases will, in all likelihood, eventually cause health care costs to increase as well. It may just be a matter of time before the prevalence of past-due medical bills increases.”