Health Insurance Literacy and Medical Debt in Middle-Age Americans

Abstract

The findings suggest that HIL plays an important role in medical debt burden. However, with the shift toward high cost-sharing insurance plans, addressing health care affordability issues along with HIL are critical to eliminate medical debt problems. <b>[<i>HLRP: Health Literacy Research and Practice</i>. 2021;5(4):e319-e332.]</b> Plain Language Summary: Understanding and using health insurance (also defined as health insurance literacy) may influence the ability to pay medical bills among people who are sick and vulnerable. This study examined the relationships among health insurance literacy, health insurance factors, and difficulty paying medical bills (i.e., medical debt) in Americans age 50 to 64 years using data from the Health Reform Monitoring Survey. People with higher health insurance literacy reported lower medical debt. Type of insurance coverage did not influence medical debt. Those with annual deductibles and out-of-pocket health care costs were more likely to report having medical debt.