Credit cards: Many go deep in debt for health care

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The participants had been carrying credit card debt for at least three months. A quarter of them had the debt longer. Their debts were at least $5,000. Two out of five households owed more than $10,000.

Mean and median credit card debt among medically indebted*

	Mean	Median
All	$11,623	$7,000

By age
18-34	$13,303	$6,150
35-49	$10,500	$8,000
50-64	$12,515	$7,000
65+	$6,823	$4,000

By income level
Less than $35,000	$8,774	$5,000
Between $35,000 - $50,000	$12,429	$6,600
Greater than $50,000	$13,583	$7,800

By race/ethnicity
Nonhispanic Caucasian	$11,971	$7,800
Hispanic	$9,200	$5,000
Nonhispanic African-American	$10,658	$8,000
*In this table, the term medically indebted refers to survey respondents who stated that medical expenses contributed to their current levels of credit card debt and who had a major medical expense in the past three years.

High credit card balances were seen in households with kids, young adults, high debt-to-income ratios and no health insurance.

Debt-to-income ratios by annual household income

Income	Medically indebted	Nonmedically indebted

Less than $20,000	0.44	0.44
$20,000 to less than $30,000	0.39	0.24
$30,000 to less than $40,000	0.29	0.19
$40,000 to less than $50,000	0.30	0.19
$50,000 to less than $60,000	0.26	0.15
$60,000 to less than $70,000	0.21	0.13
$70,000 and higher	0.23	0.13
*In this table, the term medically indebted refers to survey respondents who stated that medical expenses contributed to their current level of credit card debt and who had a major medical expense in the past three years. Overall in the survey, the average debt-to-income ratio was 0.21

Mean credit card debt by age

Age	Medically indebted	Nonmedically indebted	Percentage higher for medically indebted

18-34	$13,303	$7,450	79 percent
35-49	$10,500	$7,881	33 percent
50-64	$12,515	$8,333	50 percent
65+	$6,823	$8,466	-19 percent
*In this table, the term medically indebted refers to survey respondents who stated that medical expenses contributed to their current level of credit card debt and who had a major medical expense in the past three years.

Average credit card debt for medically indebted*

Health insurance status, medically indebted	Mean credit card debt
Currently uninsured	$14,512
Currently insured	$10,973
Have been without insurance some time in the past three years	$11,812
Have had insurance for the past three years	$11,526
*In this table, the term medically indebted refers to survey respondents who stated that medical expenses contributed to their current level of credit card debt and who had a major medical expense in the past three years.