When a spouse dies, “people are in a particularly vulnerable time of life,” she said.
Two-thirds of new surviving spouses are women, and their average age is 71, the bureau said this month in a blog post. Many report being depressed and lonely. New surviving spouses with unpaid bills report an average of about $29,000 in unpaid medical bills, compared with about $16,000 among the rest of the population, which may reflect their late spouse’s bills, the bureau said.
Complaints to the consumer bureau from surviving spouses show confusion and frustration with medical debt. “Am I responsible for his medical bill?” one widowed spouse wrote, adding that a bill had been sent to a debt collector even after proof of her husband’s death had been provided. “Since they do not accept the fact that he died and see his death certificate, what can I do?”
Even when survivors aren’t legally responsible for paying a medical debt, emotions can sway them, Ms. Anderson said. They may be grateful to the hospital and doctors who cared for their loved one and feel an obligation to pay. “There’s definitely a feeling of, ‘I am morally responsible and need to pay it,’” she said, even if the surviving spouse may struggle to afford it.
In general, according to both the consumer protection bureau and the Federal Trade Commission, you are not responsible for someone else’s debt. Rather, a deceased person’s estate — the legal term for someone’s money and property — is responsible for paying any medical bills or debts, as directed by state law. If the estate lacks enough funds, the debt may go unpaid, the bureau says.
Married couples often jointly own savings and investment accounts, with right of survivorship, so that when one spouse dies, the funds generally become the survivor’s property rather than part of the late spouse’s estate, said Ann H. Larkin, an estate planning lawyer in Virginia Beach. (Surviving spouses could still choose to pay the bills using their funds, even though they may not be obligated to do so.)
