About one in seven Americans reported belonging to a family that struggled to pay medical bills in 2018, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The percentage of people in families having problems paying their medical bills over the past 12 months has dropped by 5.5 percentage points from 2011 to 2018, falling from 19.7% to 14.2%.
"Significant expenses for one family member may adversely affect the whole family," researchers from the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics wrote. "People who are in families with problems paying medical bills may experience serious financial consequences, such as having problems with paying for food, clothing, or housing, and filing for bankruptcy."
