Report: Credit Scores Are Lower in the South, and Medical Debt Could Be to Blame

[ck4829]

Credit scores are far lower on average in the South than they are in northern parts of the contiguous U.S. — and medical debt and state lawmakers’ refusal to expand Medicaid could be to blame, a new analysis by the Washington Post has revealed.

The analysis found a gap of roughly 100 points between the lowest average credit scores in the North and South, with the lowest seen most commonly in parts of the Deep South, and the highest typically found in northern states like Minnesota, Wisconsin and New Hampshire.

One of the largest factors at play is medical debt, Post researchers found. Medical debt is the most common type of debt reported in credit reports, and the South has the highest amount of medical debt in the country; according to the Urban Institute, 92 of the top 100 counties with the highest share of people struggling with medical debt, with the other eight in the adjacent states of Missouri and Oklahoma.

The decision by most Southern states not to use additional funding from the Affordable Care Act to expand Medicaid is a major contributing factor to the increased amount of medical debt, the report found, as those states have the highest levels of medical debt and lowest credit scores.

https://truthout.org/articles/report-credit-scores-are-lower-in-the-south-and-medical-debt-could-be-to-blame/

[Aristus]

1. Here's a scalpel, anti-ACA Southerners,

so you can keep cutting your own throats.