It certainly is a new day in Washington when the wonderful Elizabeth Warren is being called to testify before the Senate Banking Committee. On that note, I've been remiss in not linking to this startling study (pdf) by Demos connecting credit debt to medical care. According to their findings, about 30% of middle- and low-income households with debt say medical costs have been a contributor. Of that group, 40 percent had more than $10,000 in debt, and those without health insurance carried a crushing $14,512 load. Indeed, the households with medically-related debt had more debt than those in hock for other expenses -- $11,623 to $7,964.
Nowadays, hospitals and health care providers often accept credit cards, which means the uninsured and underinsured are not only paying worse absolute prices (good insurance bargains down the total prices of each unit of care), they're also paying interest on those bad deals. Just another way in which it's really quite expensive to be poor. What I'm really excited for, though, is when HSAs and their mega-deductibles enter wide use and individuals who haven't socked away sufficient money begin putting their care on the plastic. Even now, about half of all HSA users haven't put a penny into their accounts. So the next step isn't only to transfer more risk onto these individuals, it's to help plunge them deep into debt.
