Season 12 • Episode 944

944 - How Credit Scores Impact Your Health

Sep 10, 2025

15:50

Episode Description

About this episode:

Credit scores are more than just a number—they can determine your ability to access critical financial assets like loans, leases, and jobs that, in turn, have a huge impact on your health. In this episode: Professor Catherine Ettman shares new research that explores the relationship between low credit scores and mental health, and discusses a recent ruling reinstating medical debt as a metric of creditworthiness.

Guest:

Catherine K. Ettman, PhD, is an assistant professor in Health Policy and Management at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, where she studies population mental health.

Host:

Stephanie Desmon, MA, is a former journalist, author, and the director of public relations and communications for the Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs.

Show links and related content:

Americans' medical debt can stay in credit reports, judge rules. What does that mean?—NPR
Area-level credit scores and symptoms of depression and anxiety in adults—American Journal of Epidemiology
An Asset Framework to Guide Nonhealth Policy for Population Health—JAMA Health Forum

Transcript information:

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