Guess Where Medical Bills Rank As a Source of Debt?

U.S. consumers may tend to have shaky finances, but, before COVID-19 hit, they were starting to get debt under control. A Northwestern Mutual team has reported that finding in a summary of the results of an online poll, of 2,650 U.S. adults ages 18 and older, that was conducted from Feb. 12 through Feb. 25. About 74% of the participants in the new poll said they had debt. When Northwestern Mutual organized a similar poll in 2019, 73% said they had no debt.

Resources

• Links to Northwestern Mutual's consumer financial strength report and its consumer debt report are available here.
• An article about an earlier Northwestern Mutual look at consumer debt is available here.

But the average level of debt reported fell to $26,621, down from $29,800 in 2019, and down from $38,000 in 2018. Health policymakers often worry about the effects of health insurance costs and out-of-pocket health care spending on people's debt. For a look at where health-related debt fits in with the rest of Americans' debt see the slideshow above. To make the control arrows show up, wiggle your pointer over the first slide. — Read Americans Financially Unprepared for Long Lives, on ThinkAdvisor. — Connect with ThinkAdvisor Life/Health on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.