(AmericanProsperity.com) – Medical debt is one of the most common forms of debt among people in the United States and a recent study has shown that medical debt forgiveness, once it’s gone to collections, might have fewer benefits than once believed.
Researchers partnered with RIP Medical Debt, a non-profit that helps to buy and forgive medical debt, said that they found “disappointing” results when seeing what happened when people’s bills were purchased and forgiven. It has shown that it has very little effect when looking at people’s credit scores and also their desire to go to the doctor.
Raymond Kluender, who was the lead author of the National Bureau of Economic Research report, said, “Our hope was that this would be a cost-effective intervention.”
He continued, “We find no real benefits on people’s household finances or their mental health or utilization of healthcare in our study.”
He continued by saying that they still think medical debt is a huge issue, but that the intervention might need to be done earlier on. Kluender said that more access to healthcare could potentially help more than helping to forgive the bills that have already been received.
Allison Sesso, president and CEO of RIP Medical Debt said, “What we do doesn’t solve the problem, but it removes some of the burden.” She continued, saying that they won’t “hold their breath” for better universal healthcare but that it would be a better solution to their issue.
Kluender says, “If you’re intervening only after the debt has been sent to collections or after the hospital has been collecting on it for a year, there’s very little benefit.”
Reports say that more than ninety percent of Americans do have health insurance but that the medical debt issue is more prominent. It’s said that most people will pay a monthly premium toward the insurance. However, when an insurance claim is denied, this is what can begin the stacking of medical bills and debt.
Medical debt can be a huge issue for a few different reasons, including making people hesitant to visit the doctor if they have outstanding payments, which can result in them not getting the healthcare that they, or their children, need. People also have to cut back on things like food and expenses in order to pay back this debt.
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