Debt Free News

New trend of paying medical bills with credit cards still gaining

January 19, 2007

Never have we seen such an influx in new credit card debt from paying medical bills. Today, we are faced with a new debt free report that has many economists ogling the results being reported by credit card companies regarding medical payments.

It is being reported that due to lowered benefits from employers, less coverage, no coverage, and higher rates of visits for medical reasons, more consumers are turning to their credit cards for relief.

In fact, today’s debt free report states that both doctor’s office visits and hospital bills along with, co pays, health care deductibles, and other expenses related to health care have added to the balances of nearly 33% of low and middle income families that now have credit card debt. Even further, these credit card debt  balances of medically debt obliged families were an impressive 46% higher than those without medical debt on average.

A survey results released today in debt free news say that results were from interviews with fifteen hundred people (adults).

What will not shock our debt free article readers is that uninsured individuals had higher levels of credit card debt, with a typical balance of $14,500 according to the report. Even so, the report states that having health insurance was no assurance of evading a dependence on credit cards. The report clearly states that people with health insurance who have medical debt had a typical balance of just over $10,900. It seems to our debt free news team that he dilemma is often added to by higher interest rates and penalties for making late credit card payments – causing further credit card debt and even higher raised rates.

Most importantly, we want our debt free readers to understand that this report states (to our non surprise) that when individuals are sick they want to be able to get help and see a doctor or go to the hospital – they do not want to be sick obviously. So, many times consumers feel the need to pay off their credit card debt and bills even though many times they cannot afford to do so. According to the report, most of the people interviewed said they want to remain in good standing with their providers too.

Younger individuals (between 18 and 34 years of age) who are in medical debt or credit card debt do to medical treatment have the highest level of credit card debt of any age group according to the newly released report. This group of individuals has approximately (on average) $13,300 of debt. Additionally, this same group without medical debt averaged nearly $7,460 worth of credit card debt. Thos in good health of this group are more likely than other age groups to hold off obtaining proper medical coverage than any other age group – this should not come as a real surprise either to out debt free news readers pout there. But, this makes this age group extremely in danger no doubt – accidents happen. What’s more, this is the age group that has just started working in the real world and they mostly do not have any financial cushion to land on in the case of medical needs if they have no insurance.

What we can tell our debt free advocates out there is that health care companies that provide discounts of as much as half off to patients who pay up front when a medical care needed may not be the best thing for consumers to take advantage of. See, this is where may consumers whip out the credit cards and charge the services in full to get the discount. When you consider this against credit card debt rates – you end up paying more in the long run in most cases – so be aware. Again – no cushion means longer debt – longer debt means more money paid in the long run. This is especially a risk for those consumers out there that already have a balance on their credit cards when they charge the additional doctors/medical bills on the card.

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