Burden of medical debt forces Black Americans to make difficult choices

By Mylika Scatliffe, AFRO Women’s Health Writer courtesy of the afro.com

Marie Crest is like many other Black people in the United States. She is 36-years-old. She’s a mother of two sons with a third on the way. Crest works full time as an account consultant specialist for a national payroll company, but somehow, she receives regular collection phone calls and letters about outstanding bills– medical bills, to be exact.

“I probably have roughly $4,000 or $5,000 in outstanding medical bills going [back] to 2019, mostly for my sons,” said Crest. “I had to take my oldest for a consultation with a dental specialist about a chipped tooth. My portion of the bill was $1,200 and that was after what my in- network dental insurance provider paid.”

According to a report published by the National Consumer Law Center (NCLC) entitled “The Racial Health and Wealth Gap: Impact of Medical Debt on Black Families,” medical debt “remains a looming crisis that disproportionately affects Black households and communities, despite the aims of the Affordable Care Act.”

The NCLC reports that “sixty-two percent of bankruptcies are related to medical debt, one in three Black adults have past due medical bills, compared to fewer than one in four White adults, and 17 percent of Black adults lack health insurance compared to 12 percent of White adults.”

An analysis performed by the Kaiser Family Foundation last year shows that citizens who are chronically ill, lowincome, uninsured, Black or Hispanic or live in states that have not expanded Medicaid eligibility as allowed under the Affordable Care Act, bear the heaviest burdens of medical debt.

“The disproportionate amount of medical debt carried by Black Americans goes back to the systemic disparities that go back as far as this country’s existence,” said Berneta Haynes, a staff attorney at the NCLC and author of the above-mentioned report.

In 2022, the Federal Reserve reported Black households had an average net worth of $340,599 versus $1.3 million held by White households.

“Less wealthy households have less ability to weather an unexpected financial crisis. A surprise $500 medical bill can send finances into a tailspin for someone living paycheck to paycheck,” said Haynes.

The history of Jim Crow segregation has a direct correlation to the racial health gap between Black and White people in America. Racist policies were embedded into all aspects of life and into every institution in the United States, including hospitals and health care.

“It looked different in the North and South. In the South, Black people had no access to hospitals while in the North, there may have been access– but the facilities and provided care were inferior,”

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