Medicare beneficiaries still face financial hardship paying health bills

More than half of seriously ill Medicare recipients report having difficulty when it comes to paying medical bills, according to a small, new survey. A third of very ill Medicare beneficiaries also report having trouble paying for prescriptions drugs. As a result of their illness, nearly 40% of these patients said they had exhausted all their savings, while about 30% report being contacted by a collections agency. One of the problems, the authors noted, is that although Medicare is often a better alternative for poor and older individuals than commercial options, there is currently no cap on out-of-pocket spending for these patients.

To that end, another survey — from Kaiser Family Foundation — found that in 2016, the average Medicare recipient spent $5,460 in out-of-pocket health costs. Most of this spending went toward services (and not premiums), including paying for prescriptions.