Medical Debt and Collections in the U.S.

Introduction Medical debt and collections are common and large, but estimates differ widely. Methods We use two nationally representative surveys in 2024 that are associated with respondents’ credit records to measure medical debt and medical collections from survey participants directly and compare their responses to the medical collections reported to the credit bureau. Results In 2024, 36 percent of U.S. households had medical debt, 21 percent had a past due medical bill, and 23 percent were paying a medical bill over time to a provider. Medical and dental providers are thus one of the most common sources of credit to households. At the same time, 15 percent of people were contacted by someone other than their medical provider to collect a medical debt while only 12 percent had any medical collection on their credit record and 5 percent had a new collection. Active medical collections only partially overlap with medical collections on credit reports and neither represents all medical debt. We bound the mean total debt in active medical collection for people with such collections as between $2,456 and $7,931. Conclusion These debts are not interchangeable, so future policy and research should distinguish carefully between them.