A side effect of the pandemic: Soaring medical debt

Medical debt ranks among the top causes of personal bankruptcies across the U.S., with people often struggling to handle unexpected health care costs even when they are covered by health insurance. But that problem has deepened during the coronavirus pandemic. Data show a growing number of Americans being pursued by debt collectors over their medical bills during the last year.

Customers at Credit Karma carried an additional $2.2 billion in overdue medical debt from January 2020 through March 2021, reaching about $47 billion in total — the highest point in at least 16 months. Overdue medical bills are also impacting more people, with the personal finance firm finding that an additional 2.5 million people saw their medical debt enter collections since the pandemic started.  Compounding the issue, Americans are increasingly turning to personal loans to handle medical costs. LendingTree found that the share of personal loan inquiries to pay for medical expenses was 50% higher in the last full week of 2020 than in the year-ago period.