Medical debt among Credit Karma's members spiked by $2.8 billion, or about 6.5 percent, from the end of May to the end of March. The number of people with past due medical debt grew by nearly 9 percent, from 19.6 million to 21.4 million.
Now bankruptcy is Ceresa's only option, she said. The $26,000 raised in her GoFundMe campaign has been spent on insurance premiums, doctors visits, lab tests and more.
"That's just what's going to have to happen," she said. "The choices were that I either lived or died. I wake up in the middle of the night thinking about it. I just can't believe it's come to this. That amount of money is ungodly."
A survey published last month by LendingTree found that 60 percent of Americans who were polled faced medical debt, with 53 percent saying the debt was greater than $5,000 and 72 percent saying it prevented them from pursuing key financial milestones, like buying a home or having a child.
