Report: Medical debt in Bay State still on rise

By Kay Lazar, Boston Herald
Wednesday, February 18, 2004

Despite several state programs aimed at helping cash-strapped Bay Staters pay their medical bills, a new survey reveals many are still struggling with such hefty IOUs they are foregoing needed health care or face credit and housing problems.

About 40 percent of patients surveyed at community health centers in Dorchester and Lynn said they have racked up medical debts, and 59 percent said it caused them to delay getting needed care, according to the new report from the nonprofit Access Project and the Heller Graduate School at Brandeis University.

"This is not people overspending their credit cards, it's just getting the basic health services these families need,'' said Bill Walczak, executive director of the Codman Square Health Center in Dorchester, where patients were surveyed.

The report found that medical debt was not just a problem faced by the poor or uninsured. Nearly 30 percent who reported medical debts said they had insurance, and a third had incomes of $25,000 or higher.

Many said they racked up the debts from hospital stays - even though the state's uncompensated care pool is supposed to cover hospital care for those with low income and the working poor.

The problem is that the state program doesn't cover many hospital bills because a growing number of services - such as X-rays, lab tests and even surgeon fees - are actually provided by independent contractors, said Laurie Martinelli, executive director of Health Law Advocates, a Boston-based nonprofit.

< Return to News Room Index