The fact that many people lost jobs and income early on during the pandemic may have resulted in more difficulty affording medical care. (Photo: Shutterstock)
A new analysis of government data estimates that nearly 1 in 10 American adults — or approximately 23 million people — owe medical debt. What's more, nearly half of those people (11 million) owe more than $2,000, and three million people owe more than $10,000.
The Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) performed the analysis, which was based on data from the 2020 Survey of Income and Program Participation, a nationally representative survey that asks every adult in a household whether they owed money for medical bills in 2019 and how much they owe. It looked at people with medical debt of more than $250.
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