More disease, more debt

Counties with a large share of people with multiple chronic conditions (in red) tend to have higher levels of debt than counties with less illness (beige). Each dot represents a county.

Percent of Medicare population with 6+ chronic conditions

0%
20%
40%

Percent of people with credit records who have medical debt

Source: Tabulations of the August 2021 Urban Institute credit bureau data and the 2018 Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services data

Credit: Juweek Adolphe/Alyson Hurt for KHN and NPR