Sharon Woodward utilized to take a trip the nation as a medical service technician. She made great cash and prided herself on her abilities.
In her mid-40s, Woodward retired after being detected with a devastating kind of arthritis. Her condition needed costly drugs and routine healthcare, which left her with more than $20,000 in medical financial obligations.
She had no alternative however to vacate her home and reboot her life in a town in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley. Sometimes, she has actually counted on food banks to get enough to consume.
Woodward is among 100 million individuals in the U.S. with healthcare financial obligation. View her story here.
“Diagnosis: Debt” is a reporting collaboration in between KFF Health News and NPR checking out the scale, effect, and reason for medical financial obligation in America.
The series makes use of initial ballot by KFF, court records, federal information on medical facility financial resources, agreements gotten through public records demands, information on worldwide health systems, and a yearlong examination into the monetary support and collection policies of more than 500 healthcare facilities throughout the nation.
Extra research study was performed by the Urban Institute, which evaluated credit bureau and other group information on hardship,