A large government survey has found that fewer Americans say they are struggling to pay medical bills. This is the fourth year in a row that the rate of people who have troubles with medical bills has gone down. Most of the progress has occurred among people with low incomes and those who have government coverage.
The number of people in households that had problems paying medical bills went down by 12 million from the first half of 2011 through the first 6 months of this year, according to data collected by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The results are from the National Health Interview Survey, and apply to people under age 65, since anyone older than that is usually covered by Medicare.
Most of the improvement has been seen in the last 2 years, which is when the Affordable Care Act (ACA) came into effect. The ACA, also called Obamacare, greatly expanded healthcare coverage by offering subsidized private health insurance for people who do not get coverage through their employer and expanding Medicaid for low-income adults with no children living at home.
In 2011, there were more than 56 million people not covered by Medicare who lived in households with problems paying for medical bills. This translated to more than 20% of U.S. residents under age 65 having problems with medical bills that year. By the first half of 2015, the number with problem medical bills had dropped to 44.5 million people, or 16.5%. This difference is statistically significant.
Although the ACA has expanded coverage, the benefits of the law have gone primarily to low-income households. People with private health insurance, often obtained through their employers, saw less of an improvement than people who received help through the ACA. households. In 2011, about 15% of people who were not poor were in households struggling with their health care costs. That was about half the rate as was faced by the poor and those near the poverty line. By the first half of this year, the share of the non-poor with problems was reduced to about 12%.
