The number of people struggling to pay their medical bills shrank as more Americans found work and the ACA extended coverage to many of the previously uninsured, according to report from the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics released Wednesday.
The report provides updated estimates for 2011 to June 2016 from the National Health Interview Survey.
Here are five findings from the report.
1. The percentage of people under age 65 in families struggling to pay medical bills decreased in the last five years, from 21.3 percent (56.5 million) in 2011 to 16.2 percent (43.8 million) in the first half of 2016.
2. The percentage of children under age 18 in families struggling to pay down medical debt decreased in the last five years, from 23.2 percent in 2011 to 17.6 percent in the first half of 2016.
3. Within each year, from 2011 through June 2016, children under age 18 were more likely than adults under age 65 to be in families struggling to pay medical bills.
4. In the first half of 2016, among individuals under age 65, 28.5 percent of those who were uninsured, 21.1 percent of those who had public coverage, and 12.6 percent of those who had private coverage were in families struggling to pay medical bills in the past 12 months.
5. In the first half of 2016, 23 percent of poor, 24.9 percent of near-poor and 12.6 percent of not-poor individuals under age 65 were in families struggling to pay medical bills in the last 12 months.