Florida Personal Injury Lawyers Anidjar & Levine found that South Carolina ranks 2nd for states facing the most stress about medical bills.
The company came up with the rankings by analyzing the latest data from the Urban Institute Data Catalog to discover the percentage of the population with medical debt in collections in each state, along with the median amount.
Coming in first place for the most stressed state with medical bills is West Virginia, with an estimated 23.97% of adults in the state having medical debt in collections. This is the highest ratio in the country and close to twice the national rate, which stands at 12.6%. West Virginia's median medical debt in collections is $553, and the state also has America's second lowest average household income, at $65,842 – only Mississippi has a lower average ($65,081).
South Carolina is in the second spot for most stressed, with 22.26% of people over 18 in the state having medical debt in collections. There are 10.85% of residents in South Carolina without health insurance, which is nearly double the percentage of people with no insurance in West Virginia. On the opposite end of the scale, the research also revealed that Minnesota, South Dakota, and Alaska are the top three U.S. states where the lowest percentage of residents have medical debt in collections. The top ten states by percentage of people with medical debt in collections:
