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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
Jessica Glenza

Doctors say they’ve apprehensively taken on job of preventing patients’ medical debt

A credit card and a stack of medical bills.
Dr Karen Kinsell says patients ‘not infrequently, refuse to go to the ER’, partly for fear of debt. Photograph: DNY59/Getty Images

The medical debt advocacy organization Undue Medical Debt released a toolkit to help doctors address patients’ financial needs – a role doctors said they did not train or want, but feel thrust into amid what they see as a worsening crisis.

More than 90% of Americans carry some form of health insurance. Still, an estimated 41% of US adults, or more than 100 million people, also have medical debt – whether held on a credit card, paid off to a provider over time, borrowed from a family member or with a collections agency, surveys show.

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