5 recent studies illustrating Americans' increasing inability to pay for care

Below are five studies Becker's Hospital Review reported in June that shed light on Americans' medical debt and hospital prices.

  1. In the past year, cost was a bigger factor driving Americans to skip recommended healthcare than fear of contracting COVID-19, according to a report from Patientco. Thirty-four percent of female patients and 30 percent of male patients said they have avoided care in the past year citing concerns about out-of-pocket costs.

  2. Credit monitoring site Credit Karma said its members' medical debt grew by 6.5 percent from May 2020 to March 2021.

  3. The 100 U.S. hospitals with the highest revenues charged patients an average of seven times the actual cost of the care they provided, according to research from Baltimore-based Johns Hopkins University.

  4. Fifty-one percent of emergency and 39 percent of non-emergency ground ambulance rides result in an out-of-network charge, according to a report published June 24 by the Peterson-KFF Health System Tracker.

  5. Privately insured families spent an average $3,068 out of pocket for maternal and newborn hospitalizations from 2016 to 2019, according to a recent Pediatrics study. Bills exceeded $10,000 for 9 percent of families who needed neonatal intensive care.

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