Fewer families report trouble paying medical bills

The percentage of families with members aged 65 years and under who had trouble paying medical bills has decreased between 2011 and 2014, according to preliminary results from the CDC’s National Health Interview Survey.

Data from the survey revealed that the number of families, which the CDC defined as an individual or group of two or more related persons living together in the same house, who experienced problems paying their medical bills decreased from 56.5 million (21.3%) in 2011 to 47.7 million (17.8%) in 2014.

In the first half of 2014, 31.2% of families surveyed were uninsured, 24.2% had public coverage and 12.4% had private coverage, but all three experienced problems paying medical bills within the previous 12 months. During the same time period, 27.1% of families were poor, 28% near poor and 12.6% not poor and all reported difficulty paying medical bills in the previous 12 months, according to the survey.

Between 2011 and 2014, more children aged 0 to 17 years than adults aged 18 to 64 years were likely to be in families that had trouble paying medical bills, although this rate dropped from 23.2% in 2011to 19% in the first 6 months of 2014.

During the first half of 2014, 20.5 % of Hispanic, 16.3% of non-Hispanic white, 23.8% of non-Hispanic black and 8% of non-Hispanic Asian people had problems paying medical bills within the previous year.

Reference:

Cohen RA, et al. CDC. National Health Interview Survey. Available at: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nhis/earlyrelease/probs_paying_medical_bills_jan_2011_jun_2014.pdf. Accessed February 26, 2015.

Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.