The Burden of Out of Pockets Costs and Medical Debt Faced by Households with Chronic Health Conditions in the United States

Introduction: To examine
the relationship between chronic health conditions and out-of-pocket costs (OOPC)
and medical debt.

<span><br><br>Methods: Secondary data from the
2013 Panel
Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) was used. Households whose head of
household and spouse (for married households) were 18 to 64 years old
were included.</span>

<span><br><br>Results:
Results from multivariate models showed that an increase in chronic health
conditions by one increased the likelihood of having any OOPC by 68%, any
medical debt by 135%, the amount of OOPC by 30% and
the amount of medical debt by 60%. <br><br></span>Conclusions: Findings from this study show that the presence of chronic health
conditions impose a large financial burden on some households.

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