Fewer American families are struggling to pay their medical bills, according to a report from the Centers for Disease Control.
Though the number has been in steady decline for the past five years, health advocates in Maine say there are still too many who can’t afford health care. And the problem of paying medical bills may affect more families in Maine than those in other states.
Five years ago, there were nearly 57 million people under the age of 65 who were in families that had a hard time paying medical bills, according to the CDC. This year, that number had dropped about 5 percent to nearly 44 million.
That dip, says Morgan Hynd of the Maine Health Access Foundation, is not surprising, because of the Affordable Care Act.
“The reduction in people and families who are having trouble with that is directly related to the fact that 20 million people now have coverage that didn’t five years ago,” she says.
Uninsured rates are at historic lows, says Emily Brostek of Consumers for Affordable Health Care, so it follows that more people can afford their medical costs.
“What we’ve wanted to achieve through national health reform has worked, to a great extent,” she says.
But, Brostek says, there is room for improvement.
“I would say there are still too many people struggling with their medical bills,” she says. “We hear from people on our help line who literally lose their house because they can’t pay their medical bills.”
Some of these bills were racked up before the Affordable Care Act was in place, says Brostek.
Other calls to the help line come from people who currently have insurance, but struggle to pay ever-increasing deductibles. And then there are people who don’t have any health insurance.
“We still have a number of people who don’t have affordable health coverage options because we haven’t accepted funding available to cover them through our state Medicaid program,” Brostek says.
Which, she says, means the number of Maine families struggling with medical bills likely skews higher than the national average.
The Maine Health Access Foundation released a report last year that found in 2013 and 2014, Mainers across all income levels had more difficulty paying their medical bills compared to the rest of the nation. Whether that gap narrows in the future and more families can afford health care depends on the policies that will be put forth by President-elect Donald Trump.
Trump has said he plans to repeal and replace the ACA. But Hynd says she hopes some elements will be preserved, including the individual mandate to buy insurance.
“Because you really need everyone in the insurance pool to make all the other pieces fit together properly. You need to have the good parts, and the not-so-good parts together,” she says.
In other words, healthier people need to be a part of the insurance pool to help offset the costs of those who are not as healthy.
There’s one other aspect of the ACA that Hynd says is worth preserving to increase health care affordability: Medicaid expansion.
“It’s also something that hasn’t happened in Maine yet, but I hope that Maine will still have the opportunity in 2017 to expand Medicaid,” she says.
This fall, a number of Maine organizations launched a petition to put Medicaid expansion on the ballot.
