Kansas and Missouri health care is saddling people of color with debt

Communities of color here face a burden of medical debt that dwarfs what white people experience, and what people of color experience in many other states
People of color in Kansas and Missouri are often saddled with medical debt. That hurts their credit and their ability to get good loans, to buy homes and a range of other things that fuel middle class wealth.

The Urban Institute crunched data from millions of credit reports across the country by ZIP code.

In both Kansas and Missouri, nearly one-third of adults in predominantly non-white ZIP codes have medical debt in collections.

That makes it twice as common in communities of color — compared to mostly white ZIP codes — to face collectors pursuing them over medical bills.