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The Effects of Medical Debt Relief: Evidence from Two Randomized Experiments

Author

Listed:
  • Raymond Kluender
  • Neale Mahoney
  • Francis Wong
  • Wesley Yin

Abstract

Two in five Americans have medical debt, nearly half of whom owe at least $2,500. Concerned by this burden, governments and private donors have undertaken large, high-profile efforts to relieve medical debt. We partnered with RIP Medical Debt to conduct two randomized experiments that relieved medical debt with a face value of $169 million for 83,401 people between 2018 and 2020. We track outcomes using credit reports, collections account data, and a multimodal survey. There are three sets of results. First, we find no impact of debt relief on credit access, utilization, and financial distress on average. Second, we estimate that debt relief causes a moderate but statistically significant reduction in payment of existing medical bills. Third, we find no effect of medical debt relief on mental health on average, with detrimental effects for some groups in pre-registered heterogeneity analysis.

Suggested Citation

  • Raymond Kluender & Neale Mahoney & Francis Wong & Wesley Yin, 2024. "The Effects of Medical Debt Relief: Evidence from Two Randomized Experiments," CESifo Working Paper Series 11074, CESifo.
    • Handle: RePEc:ces:ceswps:_11074
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    File URL: https://www.cesifo.org/DocDL/cesifo1_wp11074.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Will Dobbie & Jae Song, 2015. "Debt Relief and Debtor Outcomes: Measuring the Effects of Consumer Bankruptcy Protection," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 105(3), pages 1272-1311, March.
    2. Anderson, Michael L, 2008. "Multiple Inference and Gender Differences in the Effects of Early Intervention: A Reevaluation of the Abecedarian, Perry Preschool, and Early Training Projects," Department of Agricultural & Resource Economics, UC Berkeley, Working Paper Series qt15n8j26f, Department of Agricultural & Resource Economics, UC Berkeley.
    3. Ing-Haw Cheng & Felipe Severino & Richard R Townsend & Stijn Van Nieuwerburgh, 2021. "How Do Consumers Fare When Dealing with Debt Collectors? Evidence from Out-of-Court Settlements [Why don’t lenders renegotiate more home mortgages? Redefaults, self-cures and securitization]," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 34(4), pages 1617-1660.
    4. Anderson, Michael L., 2008. "Multiple Inference and Gender Differences in the Effects of Early Intervention: A Reevaluation of the Abecedarian, Perry Preschool, and Early Training Projects," Journal of the American Statistical Association, American Statistical Association, vol. 103(484), pages 1481-1495.
    5. Peter Ganong & Pascal Noel, 2020. "Liquidity versus Wealth in Household Debt Obligations: Evidence from Housing Policy in the Great Recession," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 110(10), pages 3100-3138, October.
    6. Abhijit Banerjee & Paul Niehaus & Tavneet Suri, 2019. "Universal Basic Income in the Developing World," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 11(1), pages 959-983, August.
    7. Alyce Adams & Raymond Kluender & Neale Mahoney & Jinglin Wang & Francis Wong & Wesley Yin, 2022. "The Impact of Financial Assistance Programs on Health Care Utilization: Evidence from Kaiser Permanente," American Economic Review: Insights, American Economic Association, vol. 4(3), pages 389-407, September.
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    Cited by:

    1. Christa N. Gibbs & Benedict Guttman-Kenney & Donghoon Lee & Scott T. Nelson & Wilbert H. van der Klaauw & Jialan Wang, 2024. "Consumer Credit Reporting Data," NBER Working Papers 32791, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    debt relief; medical debt; health care; mental health; access to credit;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G51 - Financial Economics - - Household Finance - - - Household Savings, Borrowing, Debt, and Wealth
    • I10 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - General
    • I18 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health

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