Portion of Georgians with medical debt more than 5X higher than US average, study shows

KFF Health News reported earlier in February that government data shows Americans owe at least $220 billion in medical debt.

While the average share of Americans with debt is about 2.3% nationally, adults in Georgia with medical debt was more than five times higher at 12.7%, according to the KFF analysis. However, data compiled by the Urban Institute reported that 17.3% of Georgians owe medical debt that is in collections.

KFF reported that US medical debt levels were high even while more than 90% of Americans have some type of health insurance.

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“High deductibles and other forms of cost-sharing can contribute to individuals receiving medical bills that they are unable to pay, despite being insured,” KFF said.

Their analysis of data from the federal government said 20 million people, or one of every 12 adults in America, has some type of medical debt they owe.

Of those, roughly three million owe at least $10,000.

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So, how much medical debt is owed by Georgia?

The Consumer Finance Protection Bureau, an independent agency within the U.S. Federal Reserve, reported in 2022 that Georgia’s medical debt was about $8.2 billion. However, that was based on data collected in December 2020.

According to data compiled by the Urban Institute on state-level medical debt, Georgians owe medical debt to the tune of about $855 each. With a population of 11 million people in 2023, that means roughly 1.9 million adults had medical debt in collections.

Including those whose debt wasn’t in collections already, meaning 30 days past due on payments, 19.5% of Georgians had medical debt of $250 or more, according to the data.

The Urban Institute reported that the amount of Georgians without health insurance was about 12.6% in 2023.

More broadly, the White House reported in December that the number of Americans “struggling with unpaid medical bills” was actually about one-third of all adults in the U.S.

With how debt, particularly medical debt, can impact Americans’ financial futures, the administration of President Joe Biden announced an effort in September to remove medical debt from credit checks.

The year before, the three major credit reporting agencies in the United States announced they’d be removing medical debt from credit reports, once it has been paid, changing a yearslong policy when it comes to credit reporting. That change took effect in July 2022 and was expected to remove roughly 70% of all medical debt from credit reports, according to the companies Experian, Equifax and TransUnion.

Similarly, the federal government stopped including medical debt when checking grant and loan eligibility for programs by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development in April 2022.

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