1 in 5 living in CDC’s “diabetes belt” have medical debt in collections, analysis finds

New analysis by NPR has found that at least 1 in 5 people living in the 644 mostly Southern counties designated by the CDC as ‘the diabetes belt” have medical debt in collections (Source: “Many People Living in the ‘Diabetes Belt’ Are Plagued With Medical Debt,” Kaiser Health News, May 30).

A half dozen counties in southern and eastern Ohio are part of the diabetes belt.

“The single most important predictor of a county’s medical debt is the prevalence of chronic conditions. So it’s basically the share of the population that has disease, such as diabetes, hypertension, and other types,” said Urban Institute economist Breno Braga, who worked on the analysis.

The analysis was conducted by the Urban Institute for KFF Health News and NPR as part of an investigation into medical debt published last year. The investigation found, among other things, that 100 million people in the U.S. have some kind of health care debt, a burden that can be devastating for people with chronic illnesses such as diabetes and cancer.