The Future of Medical Debt Relief in the United States

Clicks: 14
ID: 332427
2026
Free PDF
Article Quality & Performance Metrics
Overall Quality
Not rated
Combines reader engagement with the AI quality analysis. This article has not been analysed, so there is no overall score — reader engagement is measured and shown alongside.
AI Quality Assessment
Not analyzed
Readership in this journal
Emerging

Ranked #124 of 168 articles by views in Health Affairs Scholar

Most read Least read

Bar heights use a square-root scale. Only the 120 most-read articles are drawn; the journal has 168 in total.

Mint this article as an NFT
Not yet minted

Create a permanent, verifiable on-chain record of this article on the Scimatic Network. The NFT is held in your Journament account, and you can withdraw it to your own wallet at any time.

5 SUSD one-off · no wallet required
Sign in to mint
Abstract
Abstract Over 100 million Americans carry an estimated $220 billion in medical debt, contributing to two-thirds of personal bankruptcies. Since 2022, state and local governments have responded by purchasing and canceling residents’ medical debt. In this scoping review, we examine and compare the structure and impact of these medical debt relief efforts. In sum, 10 states and 21 local governments have eliminated $13.5 billion in medical debt for 7 million residents to date. However, we found that these efforts have been primarily funded by temporary federal pandemic relief dollars that expire after 2026. North Carolina is a notable exception: by conditioning enhanced hospital Medicaid payments on the adoption of debt mitigation policies, the state has erased $6.5 billion in medical debt among its residents, representing 48% of all relief nationally, without utilizing federal pandemic funds or general state-fund appropriations. We argue that leveraging payment incentives may potentially offer a more durable approach to relieving existing debt, and that pairing retrospective debt relief with structural consumer protections is vital to target the upstream drivers of future debt burden. We also argue that sustaining progress requires evaluating program costs and the understudied health and financial outcomes of beneficiaries.
Reference Key
openalex_W7222059954 Use this key to autocite in the manuscript while using SciMatic Manuscript Manager or Thesis Manager
Authors Alex J Dong, Victor Agbafe, Nicholas L. Berlin
Are you one of these authors? Claim your profile
Journal Health Affairs Scholar
Year 2026
DOI
10.1093/haschl/qxag286
URL
https://doi.org/10.1093/haschl/qxag286
Keywords Keywords not found

Citations

No citations found. To add a citation, contact the admin at info@scimatic.org

Comments

No comments yet. Be the first to comment on this article.