| KFF Health News
Naman Shah, the director of medical and dental affairs at the public health department and a co-author of the report, said he was particularly struck that medical debt affects approximately the same percentage of Angelenos as other public health concerns do, such as diabetes and asthma. . Yet LA County’s study revealed that despite expanded insurance coverage through the Affordable Care Act and the covid-19 emergency, the prevalence of medical debt remained unchanged from 2017 to 2021.,” which discovered that more than 100 million Americans, 41% of adults, are saddled with medical bills they cannot pay. That investigation drew largely on a nationwide poll designed to capture not just bills patients couldn’t afford, but other borrowing used to pay for health care as well.
To alleviate the problem, the report recommends collecting and sharing data related to medical debt, enforcing fair billing and collection laws, and improving financial assistance programs where qualified patients can access free or discounted care. One idea is for the county to partner with debt relief organizations to buy up residents’ medical debt and retire it., buys medical debt for pennies on the dollar to provide rapid debt relief.