The Biden administration on Thursday announced plans to remove medical bills from Americans’ credit reports in a push to end what it called coercive debt collection tactics that affect millions of consumers.
Proposals under consideration would help families financially recover from medical crises, stop debt collectors from coercing people into paying bills they may not even owe, and ensure that creditors are not relying on data that is often plagued with inaccuracies and mistakes, Vice President Kamala Harris and Rohit Chopra, the top consumer finance watchdog, announced.
Harris told reporters that more than 100 million Americans had unpaid medical debt.
“Many of the debts people have accrued are due to medical emergencies,” she said. “We know credit scores determine whether a person can have economic health and wellbeing, much less the ability to grow their wealth.”
Chopra’s agency, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, reported last year that roughly 20% of Americans have medical debt, but CFPB said its data also showed medical billing data is a poor indicator of whether consumers’ are likely to pay down traditional debts.
The Brookings Institution think tank also found big gaps in medical debt statistics, with some 80% of debt held by households with zero or negative net worth, and communities of color hit especially hard. For instance, 27% of Black households hold medical debt compared with 16.8% of non-Black households.
According to the CFPB, the Fair Credit Reporting Act restricts the use of medical information in credit decisions and credit reports. The agency on Thursday announced policy outlines that could give rise to new regulations.
As great as this sounds it is still incredibly sad that we have to create bandaids to allow it to continue instead of actually fixing the problem… it will only get worse.
Got to get rid of insurance companies.
The ACA served to entrench them further.
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I mean, it was a Republican bill written by insurance companies. Romneycare in MA.That’s not new news. And it wasn’t hidden news then. Why do you think Republicans hated it so much?
because that was their answer for medicine and Democrats stole it from their platform, bc Democrats are spineless and won’t do anything to upset the corporate overlords. They’ll pre-negotiate amongst themselves like a bunch of bitches guaranteeing they’ll be whittled further to the right than they already are (Democrats ARE NOT left wing).
Once Lieberman killed the public option I said it to everyone; so much for hope and change? One party wants a shock and awe event to take us back to fuedalism, reneg suffrage and bring back out in the open slavery. The other party doesn’t have any actual vision, they just want to make sure it’s incremental.
This is how you fix problems. Make things better, where you can, where you can get the political backing to do it.
Don’t be one of those people that says “Its not perfect, so its not worth doing it”
Cause the only people that say that are the ones that want to actively sabotage the system, like how was done with the ACA.
Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good.
What else are you supposed to do when you cut yourself crawling across shards of broken glass on the way to the refrigerator? Besides, even if you wanted to clean it up, your state is run by anti-sweeping politicians because your neighbors don’t want their tax dollars going to Big Broom and helping you clean when you should really be spending your time working at the Fragile Dinnerware factory. Maybe you should consider living in a house that’s not filled with broken glass. But your neighbors really would like to let you use this bandaid — who doesn’t love a feel-good story???
This is a feature not a bug, after all, both parties serve capitalism and the status quo, neither is there to make life or society any better for people.
That would be nice.
I have cancer, and you really get fucked hard for that.
I wish you a speedy and effective treatment with a quick recovery to follow. May your medical bills go unnoticed, unpaid, and unpunished.
Thank you. I’m doing okay. I’ve been very lucky
But some of the billing is insane.
Back around 2000 an 11 year old niece had a brain aneurysm at school and air transport was required.
The parents were shocked to get an $8000 bill for the helicopter.
This Feb the tab for me was 143,000. But I had bought REACH air transport insurance.
The funny thing was, the pilots had to meet another copter at my destination anyway. So it really wasn’t costing them anything.
Wait… Did REACH charge you even though you have an annual membership?
They initially denied coverage.
But it turned out they needed documentation from the hospital to prove a legit medical emergency.
So they covered it, but there were a couple of months that were pretty scary.
I’m so sorry for your undue stress, but I’m glad they ultimately did the right thing. I was poring through REACH’s T&S last night looking for anything that might get someone out of such a ridiculous bill and was going to call my airlift EMT cousin this morning to ask for advice if I couldn’t come up with anything.
Keep us posted on your progress, I hope you get to share some good news soon.
I was pretty lucky, aside from the financial stuff.
I had a long run of good health and then got slammed with a week in hospital with pneumonia, Covid and chemotherapy.
I walked away with it one piece, but somehow ended up with Type 2 diabetes. That was why I ended up in the helicopter – uncontrollable diabetic ketoacidosis. Turns out I was allergic to the diabetes medication.
I’m doing well now. I have Covid again but still have my job.
they needed documentation from the hospital to prove a legit medical emergency.
Do they think people are out there taking life fights in helicopters like they’re taxis? So fucking ridiculous, I’m so sorry you even had to worry about something like that.
People who work for medical insurance companies need their heads examined. You must need a certain amount of psychopathy to get a paycheck from this kind of cruelty and then be able to sleep at night.
These people are predators.
A few years back a couple of friends got appendicitis in separate situations.
In both instances the insurers initially denied the claims. They claimed the procedures were not medically necessary.
Appendicitis is fatal.
These fuckers make vampires look like saints.
That sucks. I hope and pray you have the best possible outcome. Fuck cancer.
I’ve been very lucky medically, but you get these random bills.
Air transport was the worst. But I did get one hell of a ride in February.
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the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, reported last year that roughly 20% of Americans have medical debt
I’m honestly shocked it’s only 20%.
assume the statistics would be slightly different if they added people that died with medical debt in the past year. People incurring medical debt tend to expire from those medical issues.
And the rest of us just don’t go to the doctor.
It’s a start. But could we start punishing the companies for the part where it’s “plagued by inaccuracies and mistakes”? How about if every wrong, misrepresented or inaccurate item on a bill must be refunded 200% to the patient? If insurance has already paid it, half the refund could go to them and the rest to the patient. That would incentivize the insurance company (who has knowledgeable staff and isn’t sick) to find those errors and frauds.
Americans: “Can we change to a system like the rest of the world where medical issues don’t put you into debt?”
Politicians: “The impact on the medical industry would (checks notes) be devastating…tell you what, we won’t report your massive debts to credit reports. Good enough?”
Americans: “…”
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Didn’t go that far in my point, but it’s much less than we could do. I’ve found “better than nothing” is a way to sell acceptance of not enough done.
“why aren’t you cheering for the very slight loosening of our shackles??!1” asks the easily placated bootlicker…
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So you’re not just a bootlicker, but an ableist too, well done you!
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It’s gotta move in that direction to get removed…
Republicans: NOOOOO!!! Except mine.
God Bless Joe Biden
Europeans cannot imagine the subconscious dread that we Americans have at all times knowing that at any moment some easily treatable medical emergency could happen and completely destroy our lives financially.
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This is the best summary I could come up with:
Sept 21 (Reuters) - The Biden administration on Thursday announced plans to remove medical bills from Americans’ credit reports in a push to end what it called coercive debt collection tactics that affect millions of consumers.
Proposals under consideration would help families financially recover from medical crises, stop debt collectors from coercing people into paying bills they may not even owe, and ensure that creditors are not relying on data that is often plagued with inaccuracies and mistakes, Vice President Kamala Harris and Rohit Chopra, the top consumer finance watchdog, announced.
Harris told reporters that more than 100 million Americans had unpaid medical debt.
“We know credit scores determine whether a person can have economic health and wellbeing, much less the ability to grow their wealth.”
Chopra’s agency, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, reported last year that roughly 20% of Americans have medical debt, but CFPB said its data also showed medical billing data is a poor indicator of whether consumers’ are likely to pay down traditional debts.
The agency on Thursday announced policy outlines that could give rise to new regulations.
The original article contains 279 words, the summary contains 182 words. Saved 35%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
So does this mean that those who can barely afford to pay for medical bills still have to pay them while those that are unable to pay will never have to?
In other words those who can barely pay will see their rates, premiums, fees, bills go up to shore up the cost of those who cannot pay.
Can we just all collectively say fuckit and only those making $1M+ a year should be the ones who have to pay?
Just because it doesn’t affect your credit score doesn’t mean you can’t be sued and have your wages garnished or worse. Don’t underestimate corporations on their efforts to retrieve money
So someone buried in medical debt can continue burying themselves in other debt. This is American as it gets.
Credit scores are often required for things that don’t necessarily incur debit — it can be a requirement for renting, and for credit cards (which, if paid off monthly, don’t accumulate debt).
The credit system is far from perfect, but this is a step in the right direction it seems; I view it as a statement on “healthcare as a right,” rather than as “good credit scores as a right.”
