Proposed federal spending cuts to health care in Republicans’ “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” may increase some families’ medical debts by as much as $22,800, according to a new report from Third Way, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank.
The Republican budget bill proposes $1.1 trillion in cuts to health care that target both Medicaid and Affordable Care Act coverage. An estimated 16 million people may lose health coverage based on those proposals, the Congressional Budget Office has estimated — 7.8 million who would lose Medicaid and 8.2 million who would lose Affordable Care Act coverage.
Overall, medical debt would increase by $50 billion as a result of the budget bill changes — a 15% rise over today’s $340 billion in unpaid debts, according to Third Way.
Health coverage losses would increase the number of people in families with medical debt by 5.4 million, according to Third Way’s report. More than 100 million people currently have medical debt in the U.S., according to KFF.
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