This study examines the relationship between community incarceration rates and medical debt in the United States using annual county-level data from 2012 to 2019. We account for stable and varying county-level dynamics through fixed effects regression models with controls for demographics, socioeconomic status, insurance coverage, health, and crime rates. Nationally, we find increased incarceration is associated with reduced median medical debt and has no effect on the share of the population with medical debt, but we find that these patterns vary by racial and ethnic composition. Non-white communities experience worsening medical debt as incarceration rises while white communities do not. Our results suggest incarceration has a complicated relationship with medical debt and is detrimental for communities of color.
Campbell et al. (Wed,) studied this question.