NEW YORK (AP) — Janille Williams wants to buy a home one day – but first he has to pay off tens of thousands of dollars in medical bills.
“I was in the hospital for three months over a decade ago for a blood infection and the bill was over $300,000,” said Williams, 38, a resident of Fairbanks, Alaska, who works as a retail sales manager for AT&T. “I was in the process of changing jobs, the only time in my life I didn’t have health insurance.”
When the bill went to the collection agency, the debt was eventually reduced to about $50,000, he said, an amount he still couldn’t pay.
Medical debt forgiveness, a priority for some lawmakers and advocates, would significantly improve Williams’ credit score and end calls from debt collectors.
“In the hospital, you have no choice. ‘If you leave, you’re going to die,’ they told me. I had no desire to die,” Williams said. “I don’t think anyone should have to be financially ruined to survive.”
Many Americans agree, according to a modern poll from the University of Chicago’s Harris School of Public Policy and The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. According to the poll, about half of Americans say it is extremely or very essential that the U.S. government provide debt relief for those who have outstanding medical payments.
Especially since the pandemic, more and more cities and states — including Connecticut, New York City, New Orleans and Chicago — are implementing their own versions of medical debt forgiveness. The Biden administration recently announced proposed legislation that would remove consumer medical debt from most credit reports.
The survey found that support for medical debt forgiveness is particularly high when a patient is the victim of health care fraud. About two-thirds of American adults support medical debt forgiveness when, for example, the person was wrongfully billed for services. But majorities of Americans also support debt forgiveness in other situations, such as when the patient has made timely payments on an existing loan for 20 years, has high medical debt relative to income, or is experiencing financial difficulties.
About 6 in 10 people with medical debt support debt relief if the person has a high amount of debt relative to their income, compared to about half of those without medical debt.
Denise Early, 65, an independent woman from Omaha, Nebraska, who supports medical debt forgiveness, said she was injured on the job, which eventually led to several surgeries that she said should have been covered by workers’ compensation insurance but were not. The costs eventually forced her to file for bankruptcy.
Early was working as a janitor at a post office, she said, when she had an accident. After initial hospital visits and treatments proved ineffective, Early eventually underwent knee and ankle surgeries to alleviate her ongoing problems.
“I still get bills every day,” Early said. “Debt relief would help me pay off a lot of my debts.”
Early said she also currently has over $100,000 in unpaid student loan debt.
Although President Joe Biden has focused on reducing student debt, the poll found that Americans are more likely to say that reducing medical debt should be a government priority, with about 4 in 10 U.S. adults saying it is extremely or very essential for the U.S. government to forgive student debt.
Lesley Turner, an associate professor of public policy at the University of Chicago who helped produce the survey, said the poll shows a divide over who deserves debt relief.
“If you have to go to the emergency room for a serious health problem, that’s a much less active decision than the decision to go to college,” she said. “Although, given today’s economic climate, going to college is in many ways a very important, if not essential, path to economic mobility and stability.”
Overall, Democrats, Republicans and independents are about equally inclined to support paying off medical debt when the person is a victim of fraud, according to the AP-NORC poll. However, Democrats are more likely than Republicans to support it in cases where the person is experiencing financial difficulties or has high medical debt relative to their income.
Ed Kane, a 71-year-old Republican from Chicopee, Massachusetts, believes medical debt forgiveness shouldn’t be an option. He has survived several medical emergencies — including heart attacks and cancer — and thanks his employer health insurance for good coverage that has kept him out of debt.
“We’re becoming a nation that gives everything. And I’m sick of it,” Kane said. “I’ve worked hard my whole life. I’ve worked two jobs. Because of that, I’ve had great health insurance. Anyone can do this; there’s no reason why people can’t achieve at a higher level than they do.”
Medical debt forgiveness is also a higher priority for Democrats. According to the poll, about two-thirds of Democrats say it is extremely or very essential that the U.S. government forgive medical debt, compared to about three in 10 Republicans.
Matt Haskell, 24, of Englewood, Florida, a Republican who supports debt forgiveness, also has personal experience with high medical bills from unexpected emergencies.
Haskell said he was working on cars, some of which were rusted, at the time of his accident, and one afternoon something that looked like a speck of dust caught his eye.
“It turned out to be a piece of metal stuck in my cornea,” Haskell said. “I didn’t know for five days. I went to the emergency room when I couldn’t open my eyes anymore.”
The visit left him with more than $4,500 in debt, Haskell said.
“I think in general that it’s never anyone’s fault when someone has a disease,” he said. “If they get cancer or a tumor or have a bout of diabetes that went undiagnosed – it’s not anyone’s fault if they develop something and then end up thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt.”
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Associated Press writer Linley Sanders in Washington contributed to this report.
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The survey of 1,309 adults was conducted from May 16 to May 21, 2024. The sample came from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is intended to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of error for all respondents is plus or minus 3.7 percentage points.
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The Associated Press receives support from the Charles Schwab Foundation for its educational and explanatory reporting that improves financial literacy. The foundation is independent of Charles Schwab and Co. Inc. The AP is solely responsible for its journalism.
