According to a Star Tribune analysis of court records, there is rise in number of Minnesotans who have health insurance and those too who are unable to pay their medical bills. Nearly 9,000 lawsuits against people with large or long-standing medical debts were filed by Minnesota's main hospital and clinic groups in the past year.

Medical debt was previously a big problem in the US as it often made people bankrupt. It was firmly believed that rate of medical debt will dwindle as more Americans got health insurance following federal health reform.

However, more people have no other choice than to go for high-deductible policies that require them to shell out as much as $7,500 before they receive any benefit, the newspaper reported.

“Patients are being exposed to a greater proportion of their bill. That is certainly a factor in what we are seeing in our bad debt”, said Dan Fromm, chief financial officer of Minneapolis-based Fairview Health Services.

Findings of a recent study have showed that more than 31 million Americans were under-insured in 2014. The study, conducted by New York-based Commonwealth Fund, showed that many people are not in the position to afford the cost-sharing.

Same problems are faced by under-insured people as by not-insured people, found the study. Sara Collins, a health economist and vice president at the Commonwealth Fund, said what really concerns her the most is the fact that deductibles of people have been increasing, a big threat to efforts being made to improve the rates of underinsurance over time.