From Coast to Coast: The Affordability Crisis in U.S. Health Care

More than two in five Midwestern adults say they had problems with their medical bills or were paying off accrued medical debt, says a Commonwealth Fund report. Nearly a quarter of Midwesterners said they had difficulty paying or were unable to pay medical bills.

Other problems reported included being contacted by a collection agency about the bills, having to change their way of life in order to make payments, or paying off medical debt that had accrued over the last three years.

In addition, the survey, released at the Harvard Forums on Health, found that almost one of three Midwesterners reported their share of medical bills had increased by a lot or a moderate amount in the last 12 months.