The Inconvenient Truth About Medical Debt Relief

More than 40% of American adults have medical debt, and almost 60% of those with hospital medical debt had health insurance. It’s tempting for policymakers and private entities to provide medical debt relief. Has medical debt relief actually helped individuals who received it?

To answer this question, four economists from Harvard, Stanford, the University of Munich, and UCLA conducted randomized experiments involving 83,401 individuals. They found “no improvements in financial well-being or mental health from medical debt…