While Alaska is on par with the rest of the country when it comes to the percentage of people with medical debt in collections, the amount each of those people owes is far higher.
ANCHORAGE, Alaska - During the COVID-19 pandemic, agencies monitored the amount of medical debt Americans were taking on, fearing that debt levels could skyrocket. But data compiled by the Urban Institute shows that medical debt that’s in collections actually went down during the pandemic.
“In Alaska we have a much higher than average cost of medicine, so some procedures in Alaska cost 10 times as much as they would in Seattle,” Downey said in an interview, “and we know that for other medical things the cost can be 500% of what they would be in the Lower 48.”“We know medical debt is really scary, right? We saw some studies that Americans are more afraid of medical debt than they are of serious illness, which is just really shocking,” he said.
So what can a patient do to keep bills from going to collections, or to get out of debt once they do? Downey also said the federal “No Surprises Act,” which went into effect on Jan. 1, offers relief for those who receive emergency services, and may find out later that some of their care providers were “out of network” for their insurance, even if the hospital or primary doctor were in-network.“One of the most important rights that you have is to receive written notice that verifies the debt,” Downey said.
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