Two and a half million more people than usual had their medical debt enter collections since the pandemic began, personal finance company Credit Karma told CBS News in an April 28 report.
Credit Karma also said its customers carried an additional $2.2 billion in overdue medical debt from January 2020 through March 2021, totaling about $47 billion in medical debt for the time period.
Online loan company LendingTree told CBS News the amount of personal loan inquiries to pay for medical costs was 50 percent higher in the last week of 2020 than it was in the last week of 2019.
Even before the pandemic, about 60 percent of debt in collections arose from medical expenses, Manu Lakkur, Credit Karma's director of product management, told the outlet.