College of Education and Human Development

School of Social Work

Assistant Professor Hannah MacDougall Speaks at MN State Capitol

Assistant Professor Hannah MacDougall spoke at a rally at the MN State Capitol on my research conducted with colleagues at the UMN School of Public Health on the impact of medical debt on rural Minnesotans. 

Other speakers included Minnesota State Attorney General Keith Ellison and Saint Paul Mayor Melvin Carter, along with faith leaders and two individuals personally affected by medical debt. 

The rally was held to garner support for the proposed "Minnesota Medical Debt Reset Act," which would cancel medical debt for everyone in Minnesota who is at or below 400 percent of the Federal Poverty Line or whose medical debt exceeds 5 percent of their income. 

Assistant Professor Hannah MacDougall speaks at the Minnesota state capitol to an audience of residents lobbying for medical debt relief.

MacDougall and her co-authors--Mariana Tuttle, MPH, Research Fellow at the University of Minnesota Rural Health Research Center and Associate Professor Carrie Henning-Smith, PhD, MPH, MSW, University of Minnesota School of Public Health--shared insights related to both their personal and collaborative research. 

These UMN faculty members cited facts from their published papers, including:

  • Cancelling medical debt throughout Minnesota will especially help rural Minnesotan. Rural residents face increased barriers to accessing health care due to hospital closures, fewer transportation options, and long travel distances. 
  • Medical debt leads to household financial precarity and barriers to needed health care. The effects of holding medical debt are numerous and include financial and household budget strain, delaying or forgoing seeking needed health care alongside negative repercussions for health and mental health. 
  • Rural residents in Minnesota have more medical debt in collections as compared to urban residents. On average, 2.9 percent of residents in rural Minnesota counties have medical debt in collections as compared to 2.6 percent of urban residents. 
  • Rural residents face numerous barriers to accessing health care. These include hospital, facility, pharmacy, and unit closures, which have disproportionately impacted rural areas. Barriers also include long distances to care, provider and workforce shortages, fewer specialists, and transportation challenges. 
  • Rural residents also have lower incomes, on average, than urban residents. When impacted by medical debt, rural residents face additional strains on economic well-being and access to care.

Read some of Professor MacDougall's research on the cost of health care in rural areas: