Dive Brief:
- National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) data from 2011 to June 2015 show fewer Americans are struggling to pay medical bills.
- The percentage of people under age 65 who were in families struggling to pay medical bills decreased from 21.3% (56.5 million) in 2011 to 16.5% (44.5 million) in the first six months of 2015.
- During the first six months of 2015 for individuals under age 65, 29.8% of those uninsured, 21.8% of those with public insurance and 12.7% of those with private insurance were in families struggling to pay medical bills in the past year.
Dive Insight:
Also during the first six months of 2015, 24.5% of poor, 27.1% of near-poor and 12.2% of not poor people under age 65 were in families struggling to pay medical bills in the past year.
Data from the survey included information collected on 417,326 persons in the NHIS Family Core Supplemental Components from January 2011 through June 2015. The demographic with the most progress is among low-income households receiving government coverage. The majority of improvement occurred over the past two years, coinciding with Medicaid expansion.
The decrease was most prominent between 2013 and 2015 when premium tax credits and cost-sharing reduction payments, as well as Medicaid expansion in many states, became available. The percent of those under age 65 struggling to pay medical bills fell from 29.3% to 24.5% for the poor (under 100% of poverty level), and from 32.9% to 27.1% for the near-poor (100% to 200% of the poverty level). A Health Affairs blog opined, "It would seem that the coverage expansions are having their desired effect of making healthcare more affordable, particularly for poor Americans."