Medical debt is a common source of financial struggles for Americans. This may especially be the case for younger Americans, according to a recent study.
Among the data the report looked at was data from the anonymized credit records of millions of Americans. The study looked at how common it was to have past-due medical bills on a credit report. The study found that around one-sixth of Americans had such marks on their credit reports.
The study found that one generation in particular saw especially high amounts of medical debt and an especially high frequency of incurring such debt. Some might be surprised at what generation this was: millennials. This generation was found to be home to the age that made up the highest percentage of individuals with one medical bill or more in in collections of any single age. This is age 27, which was the age of 11 percent of such individuals.
Medical bill struggles could lead to a lot of financial difficulties for millennials. For one, it could lead to a person missing payments on such bills, and facing collections. Also, efforts to pay medical bills sometimes lead to other debt struggles, such as a person taking on a lot of credit card debt or missing paying other bills. Such financial problems could have implications for millennials that last long into their future.
What can millennials do to protect their financial future and goals in the face of medical bill struggles? There are many potential routes for tackling medical debt. This includes Chapter 7 bankruptcy. Medical debt is among the debts that can typically be discharged in this type of bankruptcy. Now, how appropriate Chapter 7 or some other form of debt relief would be for a given person depends on a lot of different factors. So, when millennials encounter medical bill struggles, they may want to promptly discuss their circumstances and the available options with an attorney skilled in bankruptcy and debt relief matters.
