\n\tNoam N. Levey and Hannah Norman, KFF Health News<\/span><\/p>\n

Sharon Woodward used to travel the country as a medical technician. She made good money and prided herself on her skills.<\/p>\n

But in her mid-40s, Woodward retired after being diagnosed with a debilitating form of arthritis. Her condition required expensive drugs and regular medical care, which left her with more than $20,000 in medical debts.<\/p>\n

She had no option but to move out of her home and restart her life in a small town in Virginia\u2019s Shenandoah Valley. At times, she has relied on food banks to get enough to eat.<\/p>\n

Woodward is one of 100 million people in the U.S. with health care debt. Watch her story here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

About This Project<\/h4>\n
\u201cDiagnosis: Debt\u201d is a reporting partnership between KFF Health News and NPR exploring the scale, impact, and causes of medical debt in America.<\/p>\n
The series draws on original polling by KFF, court records, federal data on hospital finances, contracts obtained through public records requests, data on international health systems, and a yearlong investigation into the financial assistance and collection policies of more than 500 hospitals across the country.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Additional research was\u00a0 conducted by the Urban Institute<\/a>, which analyzed credit bureau and other demographic data on poverty, race, and health status for KFF Health News to explore where medical debt is concentrated in the U.S. and what factors are associated with high debt levels.<\/p>\n
The JPMorgan Chase Institute\u00a0 analyzed records<\/a>\u00a0from a sampling of Chase credit card holders to look at how customers\u2019 balances may be affected by major medical expenses. And the CED Project, a Denver nonprofit, worked with KFF Health News on a survey of its clients to explore links between medical debt and housing instability.\u00a0<\/p>\n
KFF Health News journalists worked with KFF public opinion researchers to design and analyze the \u201c KFF Health Care Debt Survey<\/a>.\u201d The survey was conducted Feb. 25 through March 20, 2022, online and via telephone, in English and Spanish, among a nationally representative sample of 2,375 U.S. adults, including 1,292 adults with current health care debt and 382 adults who had health care debt in the past five years. The margin of sampling error is plus or minus 3 percentage points for the full sample and 3 percentage points for those with current debt. For results based on subgroups, the margin of sampling error may be higher.<\/p>\n
Reporters from KFF Health News and NPR also conducted hundreds of interviews with patients across the country; spoke with physicians, health industry leaders, consumer advocates, debt lawyers, and researchers; and reviewed scores of studies and surveys about medical debt.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\n
We encourage organizations to republish our content, free of charge. Here\u2019s what we ask:<\/p>\n
You must credit us as the original publisher, with a hyperlink to our kffhealthnews.org site. If possible, please include the original author(s) and KFF Health News\u201d in the byline. Please preserve the hyperlinks in the story.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s important to note, not everything on kffhealthnews.org is available for republishing. If a story is labeled \u201cAll Rights Reserved,\u201d we cannot grant permission to republish that item.<\/p>\n
Have questions? Let us know at KHNHelp@kff.org<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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