An official website of the United States government
QuickStats: Percentage of Persons in Families Having Problems Paying Medical Bills in the Past 12 Months,* by Age Group — National Health Interview Survey, 2011–2017†
Weekly / April 12, 2019 / 68(14);334
* For the 2011–2017 National Health Interview Survey Family core component, a family respondent (i.e., an adult who was knowledgeable about the family) answered the question “In the past 12 months did [you/anyone in the family] have problems paying or were unable to pay any medical bills? Include bills for doctors, dentists, hospitals, therapists, medication, equipment, nursing home, or home care.” If the respondent answered “yes,” then all persons in that family were counted as being in a family having problems paying medical bills.
† Estimates are based on interviews of a sample of the civilian, noninstitutionalized U.S. population and are derived from the National Health Interview Survey Family core component.
From 2011 to 2017, the overall percentage of persons who were in U.S. families having problems paying medical bills in the past 12 months decreased from 19.7% to 14.6%. Similar trends were observed for all age groups, with a decrease from 23.2% to 16.8% for children aged <18 years, from 20.6% to 15.5% for adults aged 18–64 years, and from 8.9% to 7.7% for those aged ≥65 years.
Source: National Health Interview Survey, 2011–2017 data. https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nhis.htm.
Reported by: Emily P. Terlizzi, MPH, [email protected], 301-458-4991; Amy E. Cha, PhD; Robin A. Cohen, PhD.
Suggested citation for this article: QuickStats: Percentage of Persons in Families Having Problems Paying Medical Bills in the Past 12 Months, by Age Group — National Health Interview Survey, 2011–2017. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep 2019;68:334. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.mm6814a6.
MMWR and Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report are service marks of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Use of trade names and commercial sources is for identification only and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Department of
Health and Human Services.
References to non-CDC sites on the Internet are
provided as a service to MMWR readers and do not constitute or imply
endorsement of these organizations or their programs by CDC or the U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services. CDC is not responsible for the content
of pages found at these sites. URL addresses listed in MMWR were current as of
the date of publication.
All HTML versions of MMWR articles are generated from final proofs through an automated process. This conversion might result in character translation or format errors in the HTML version. Users are referred to the electronic PDF version (https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr) and/or the original MMWR paper copy for printable versions of official text, figures, and tables.
Questions or messages regarding errors in formatting should be addressed to [email protected].