NEW YORK, Aug. 21 (UPI) -- A total of 79 million U.S. adults have medical bill problems or are paying off medical debt, officials of a non-profit group said.
A Commonwealth Fund report, "Losing Ground: How the Loss of Adequate Health Insurance is Burdening Working Families," describes how working-age adults are becoming more exposed to the rising costs of healthcare, either because they have lost insurance through their jobs or because they are paying more out of pocket.
This combination of factors, along with sluggish growth in average family incomes, is contributing to problems with medical bills and cost-related delays in getting needed healthcare, the report said.
The proportion of working-age Americans who have medical bill problems or who are paying off medical debt climbed from 34 percent to 41 percent from 2005 to 2007, bringing the total to 72 million. In addition, 7 million adults age 65 and older also had problems paying medical bills.
The report found that in 2007, nearly two-thirds of U.S. adults under age 65 -- 116 million people -- had medical bill problems or debt, went without needed care because of cost, were uninsured for a time, or were underinsured.
The national telephone survey conducted June 6-Oct. 24, 2007, among a representative sample of 3,501 adults age 19 and older has a margin of error of 2 percentage points.
