The Number of Americans Scrambling to Pay Medical Bills Is Now Lower

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has released the results of the government survey Tuesday, showing that today, fewer Americans are scrambling to pay their medical bills. The situation has been continuous for four years.

The report also showed that the progress was more evident among the population that are covered with government medical insurance and people coming from low-income families. From the first half of 2011 until the first half of 2015, there had been a reduction of 12 million from the previous figure of people who had difficulty in paying their medical bills. Those included in the survey were people under the age of 65 because Medicare covers almost all senior citizens.

Effects of Pres. Obama’s health care law

According to the CDC survey (National Health Interview Survey), a large part of the improvement occurred during the last two years, in which period the healthcare expansion from the health care law of President Obama came into effect. In 2011 there were about 56 million Americans under the age of 65 who were struggling to meet the payment of their medical bills. This number represent about 20 percent of Americans who are not yet eligible for Medicare.

From January to June this year, the number of people still facing problems with medical payments have gone down to 44.5 million or 16.5 percent. Although this is significant, it could also explain the reason why the public is still divided when it comes to the new health care law, since the expanded coverage favored the low-income households more.

Those who come from middle-class households and those with private insurance did not see that much of an improvement under the new health care law, mainly due to the fact that they do not have too many problems when it comes to paying their medical bills. In 2011, there were only 15 percent of the people belonging to this group who faced problems with the cost of their health care. And this year, the figures have gone down, although it could be considered modest, since it only went down to 12 percent. For the first six months of this year, the numbers for the poor and those near the poverty line that were faced with medical cost problems went down from 32.1 percent to 24.5 percent, which is a great improvement. It was a 7.6 percent reduction, compared to only 3 percent for the non-poor.

Health care law coverage

The expanded health care law of President Obama had subsidized insurance for citizens who do not have work-based coverage. It also offers expanded coverage by Medicaid (optional for states) targeting low-income adults who do not have children living with them.

The drop in numbers was evident in all groups, regardless of their having private or public insurance or none at all, across all economic levels. A study done by George Washington University showed that the number of people having insurance increased in the last three years.

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