In the past five years more than half of U.S. adults have gone into debt because of medical and dental bills, a poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation found.
— Jim and Cindy Powers' medical debt struggles began in 2004, when Cindy required emergency surgery to repair a life-threatening abdominal obstruction. In the hospital, she says, she contracted MRSA, a potentially deadly bacterial infection. That led to 18 more surgeries over a span of five years.
"That's when we discovered that there was a little over a quarter million dollars' worth of debt sitting out there," Jim said. Four years later, a new mortgage servicer had the house removed from bankruptcy protection and foreclosed. Many face similar situations. More than 100 million people in the U.S. have been burdened with health care debt, according to an A poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation found in the past five years more than half of U.S. adults have gone into debt because of medical and dental bills. One in five said they don't expect to ever pay it off.