TThis week on the First Opinion Podcast, we take a look at the issue of medical debt, which affects 40% of American adults. They have a total debt of over $200 billion..
Private organizations, charities, and even state and federal governments have launched a variety of debt relief programs to address this issue. These programs are intuitive and have a “feel good” factor. But they may be ineffective and, in some cases, harmful to the mental health of some of the people who receive them.
That’s the surprising conclusion of a study that Robert Wood Johnson Foundation senior policy adviser Katherine Hempstead wrote in a First Opinion essay and discussed on a podcast with STAT’s Pat Skerrett, joined by Allison Sesso, CEO of Undue Medical Debt, the national nonprofit that sponsored the study.
“Medical debt is incredibly stressful for people who are faced with it. One of the really terrible things about medical debt, unlike other types of debt, is that it discourages people from getting other medical care they need.”
“The system is failing people,” Seso said. “I don’t like the idea of going down this consumerist road, as if we can decide, ‘What is the cost of a colonoscopy that is better for me?'”
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