Season 2 - EP 4: Uniquely American: Medical Debt
In this episode of Uniquely American Problems we’re covering the topic of medical debt. Who has it, why is it an issue, and what can we do about it?
We chat with Jack Daily, Attorney for the Legal Aid Society of San Diego to see how he and his team tackle the issue day in and day out.
Jack Dailey is the Director of Policy and Training at the Consumer Center for Health Education and Advocacy (Consumer Center), a project of the Legal Aid Society of San Diego, Inc. (LASSD). Jack is also the Coordinator of the Health Consumer Alliance (HCA), a state-wide partnership of ten health consumer advocacy programs, supported by the National Health Law Program, Western Center on Law and Poverty, and Justice In Aging. HCA provides comprehensive health consumer advocacy services in all of California’s 58 counties and translates the lessons learned from individual case work into local and statewide policy and systems advocacy.
Folks in the US owe around $195 billion in medical debt. 16 million people have over $1,000 in medical debt and 3 million people owe over $10,000 in medical debt. While that’s a lot of numbers, just know it’s a big group of people that owe a decent chunk of change. While we hear in the episode this kind of debt is treated differently than say an overdue credit card, it still is a burden that can negatively impact a variety of other financial decisions.
https://www.lassd.org/
https://healthconsumer.org/
