STAMFORD — Rising healthcare costs and the greater prevalence of high-deductible plans are leading to growing medical bill debt, and U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., wants to talk about it.

Or rather, he wants to listen to his constituents talk about it.

On Friday afternoon, Murphy stopped by the Community Health Center of Stamford for the first of what he calls “listening sessions” about medical debt in the state.

Murphy, who appeared on the national television show “Morning Joe” on MSNBC on Friday morning to talk about the potential impeachment of President Donald Trump, said he was happy to focus on something else in Stamford.

“It’s nice to be able to talk about something other than impeachment this afternoon,” he said.

The six-year senator, who walks across the state every summer talking to constituents, said the cost of healthcare is still the No. 1 issue that people talk about.

But across the country, he said, there is some good news.

Before the passage of the Affordable Care Act, about 1.5 million people went into personal bankruptcy on an annual basis. Today, about half that number go into bankruptcy, he said, adding it is a “stunning decline” in only five years.

“That is no doubt due almost exclusively to the passage of the Affordable Care Act,” Murphy said. “It is much harder today … to lose everything, to lose your home, to lose your savings.”

Victor Villagra, associate director at the UConn Health Disparities Institute, spoke briefly during the hour-long session about a report he put together on medical debt in Connecticut.

About 17 percent of Connecticut residents between the ages of 18 and 64 has past-due medical debt, he said. That puts the state below the nationwide average of almost 24 percent for that demographic.

Among those with medical debt in the country, over 43 percent of them have used up all their savings to pay their bills, according to the research, and about one in five delays education or career plans because of mounting debt.

“Medical debt is a symptom of a systemic problem,” Villagra said, adding that rising healthcare prices and an uptake in high deductible plans have contributed to the rise in claims.

In Connecticut, there were just over 85,000 small claims court cases between 2011 and 2015, he said. Added up, those cases totaled over $110 million in claims.

In 2016, one hospital in the state — Danbury Hospital — accounted for about half of all the lawsuits brought by hospitals over unpaid bills in the state.

And when hospitals and doctors sue patients, they win almost every time, Villagra said.

Stamford Mayor David Martin, who was in attendance, called medical debt “one of the most important issues facing our country.”

A self-described advocate of free markets, Martin said health care is not something that should be controlled by market forces.

“It does not work with health care,” he said. “The system costs more and delivers less.”

Laura Poschar, a social worker who attended the meeting, spoke about recently celebrating with a woman who got a new job and no longer needed Medicaid assistance. The woman lived in affordable housing through the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and with the new job, she was having to spend $500 a month to cover her family with health care.

Poschar figured HUD would deduct healthcare costs from the woman’s rent, but that wasn’t the case.

“When the housing department told me that, I just couldn’t believe it,” she said. “I don’t know how she’s going to afford rent in a HUD building, never mind the people facing market-rate rents.”

Murphy responded, “That is the reality.”

He said he often hears from constituents that their costs are outgrowing their income, creating an unsustainable way of life.

“That panic is expanding because more and more people are in that situation,” Murphy said.

The senator said he is frustrated when people measure economic health by looking at the unemployment rate, a practice he said drives him “bananas.”

“It’s great that we have such a low unemployment rate but there is a misery index out there that is higher than ever for people who are working,” he said.