As credit card balances hit a record high, medical bills can become ‘shadow debt,’ expert says

Household debt rose by $334 billion in the third quarter to a record $19.1 trillion, but that figure does not directly include medical debt. An expert says medical bills can become “shadow debt” when people use credit cards, housing loans or other borrowing to pay them, making the original medical cost harder to track.

KFF estimates that $220 billion in medical debt exists, based on federal survey data from 2021. In 2025, one in five clients of Money Management International’s debt and budget counselling service cited a medical hardship as the reason for their debt; separately, a 2025 CFPB study found that about 17% of households surveyed in 2024 still owed money on borrowing used to pay a medical bill.