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U.S. medical bills owed by adults

at least $220 billion

2021-12-31 · claim US-MEDICAL-2021 · edition 2026-09-14-v1

Exact value
220,000,000,000 USD
Perimeter

Lower-bound estimate of adults' unpaid medical bills at the end of 2021. The exclusions are explained in the source. It measures neither current healthcare spending nor an additional compatible part of the New York Fed total.

What this measures
A survey-based estimate of medical bills owed by U.S. adults at the end of 2021, stated as a lower bound.
What it does not measure
A current balance, all healthcare spending, a credit-bureau total, or an amount that can be added to NY Fed household debt.
As published
220 USD billions (normalized ×1000000000 to reach the exact value above)
Caveat
A survey estimate of at least $220 billion owed at the end of 2021, drawn from 2022 SIPP responses about December 2021 bills. The lower-bound wording is part of the fact: the method excludes balances of $250 or less and caps very large reported values at $225,000 in its calculation. Not a current balance, not all healthcare spending, and never added to New York Fed household debt.
Display step
1,000,000,000 — the precision this figure is shown at
Review status
Recorded against the publisher's own cited location. The source's consolidation status below says whether that page was retrieved during consolidation or an earlier review was preserved.

Publisher

  • The burden of medical debt in the United States

    Peterson–KFF. February 12, 2024 analysis of 2022 SIPP responses about end-2021 medical debt.

    End-2021 balances; analysis published February 12, 2024. Status as of 2026-09-13.

    Retrieved again from the publisher on that date. The figure is a floor: at least $220 billion. The method leaves out balances of $250 or less and limits extreme reported values. It is the publisher's own analysis, not a current credit-bureau total.

Cite this figure

U.S. medical bills owed by adults, at least $220 billion, 2021-12-31. Peterson–KFF, The burden of medical debt in the United States, status as of 2026-09-13. Planet IOU, edition 2026-09-14-v1, https://planetiou.jonathanrreed.com/sources/US-MEDICAL-2021/

This claim is a dated observation, not a live figure. It is never updated in place: a newer reading is a new edition with its own page. See methodology for how amounts are normalized and corrections for anything that has changed.