Medical debt plagues 1 in 3 adults in this upstate city. How big of a problem is it in NY?

David Robinson, New York State Team
Updated ·2 min read
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Medical debt is plaguing New Yorkers in racially and economically biased ways across the state, with the cities of Elmira, Poughkeepsie, Newburgh and Utica facing some of the highest debt burdens, a new study found.

The medical debt rates for people living in those cities ranged from about 13% to 34%, according to the New York Health Foundation and Urban Institute analysis of 2022 data. In other words, more than one in three adults in Elmira had medical debt in collections, the highest rate statewide.

By contrast, the cities of Rochester and White Plains had medical debt rates of about 6% and 3%, respectively. The statewide average rate is about 6%, representing about 740,000 adults whose lives were disrupted because they needed increasingly unaffordable health care treatments.

The newly reported statistics underscored the fact some health systems and hospitals kept suing thousands of New Yorkers to collect medical debts during the pandemic, as rising health care costs and insurance premiums strained household budgets.

Medical debt lawsuits: Some NY hospitals nixed medical debt lawsuits. Others sued 1,600 patients for $9M

Which cities in New York have highest, lowest medical debt?

People wearing masks walk by the State University of New York Upstate Medical University campus in Syracuse on Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2020
People wearing masks walk by the State University of New York Upstate Medical University campus in Syracuse on Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2020

Medical debt rates varied widely across New York, with some of the worst debt burdens hitting poverty-stricken and comparatively smaller or mid-sized cities upstate, researchers found.

The top 10 highest medical debt rates, which are rounded to closest percentage, included:

  • Elmira (34%)

  • Syracuse (24%)

  • Poughkeepsie (17%)

  • Utica (16%)

  • Rome (16%)

  • Niagara Falls (13%)

  • Auburn (13%)

  • Buffalo (13%)

  • Newburgh (12%)

  • Troy (12%)

Some of the lower debt rates included White Plains (3%) which was lowest statewide, as well as New Rochelle (5%). New York City also had a nearly 4% debt rate.

Still, other cities with debt levels above the statewide average included Yonkers (9%) and Mount Vernon (7%).

The analysis looked at the top 25 largest cities statewide, as well as the biggest towns. Strikingly, nearly all of the towns, which generally include more affluent suburbs, had lower debt rates than nearby cities.

For example, near Rochester (6%), the towns of Greece and Irondequoit had debt rates of 4% and 5%, respectively.

For further details, review the study online at urban.org.

This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Medical debt: How big of a problem is it in NY? Check your local area