The Biden administration is moving to ban medical debt from credit reports.
Vice President Kamala Harris said Tuesday that the proposed rule, taken through the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, would reduce the number of Americans with medical debt listed on their credit reports to zero, down from 46 million in 2020.
In a press call Tuesday, Harris said the move would help improve the financial health and wellbeing of millions of Americans.
Medical debt, she said, “makes it more difficult to get by, much less get ahead. That is simply not fair.”
The administration calculates that if implemented, the rule would raise affected individuals’ credit scores by an average of 20 points, and could lead to the approval of approximately 22,000 additional mortgages every year as a result of the cleaned-up credit reports.
A recent study estimated that one in five U.S. households live with medical debt, including people with health insurance; and that on average, a typical American household owes about $4,600 in medical debts.
This is simply huge. I don’t know if the average person knows how much this is going to affect Americans. It will have a massive positive benefit. I mean so much of my life was a struggle because of medical debt on my credit report, that should never have been there in the first place by the way. I’m thrilled by this this is a great change.
My credit got tanked years ago for a $95 doctor visit bill I was disputing that got sent to collections. Took me years to repair my credit. I spent most of my twenties with credit well below 600 and unable to get even small increases to my credit.
I hope this goes through and others don’t have to deal with this kind of crap (or worse) because of the mess that is credit reporting.
Could you expand on why this makes such a big difference? I’m not very knowledgeable in this area. Is medical debt treated differently than other debts by lenders?
My first thought was that medical debt, like any other debt, has financial obligations that lenders would have to know about to determine the amount of credit a person is eligible for. Wouldn’t medical debt payments impact the amount of additional debt you can afford?
The significant difference is that medical debt in the US is not usually elective. I can choose to sign up for a credit card, or I can choose to apply for a house/car loan, or I can choose to go to college, or I can choose to start a business. Are you gonna choose to ignore going to the ER when you break your arm, or are having chest pains, or are airlifted after a drunk driver T-bones your car? Are you gonna refuse your child’s chemotherapy or dialysis treatments?
The US medical system is fucked up from top to bottom.
(Also note I’m not commenting on whether elective debt in the US is fair, only highlighting the difference between medical debt and other debts.)
It ends up on your credit report while you’re trying work it out between the hospital and the insurance company. Phone calls to one, phone calls to the other, and then, if you get it worked out, you have to file a claim with each credit reporting agency to get it removed. It’s like a full time job. And, once you get it cleared up with the hospital, you have to do the same with every medical person involved.
Ah, that makes a lot of sense. Thanks for explaining. I’ve been fortunate enough to avoid major medical expenses or debt, so I hadn’t thought of the situation you’ve described.
Just nationalize our healthcare system and cut out the middle man
You’re gonna need a Dem supermajority (plus a few, to offset any potential Lieberman) in both chambers of Congress for that. I wouldn’t hold my breath for it. In the meantime, this will have a tremendous impact for a lot of Americans, which is great!
I understand that. That’s why we need more progressive democrats running in local elections.
NC is making easier to be bought off.
More dems will not get us universal healthcare, every single one of them is owned by capital and they would never do a thing to harm profits.
I appreciate the move but changing definitions of credit worthiness isn’t going to fix the problem.
It’s going to fix a lot of problems for a lot of people that need help. Don’t do that, don’t be so set in needing Perfection that you allow people to suffer in the meantime.
Eh, the post you’re replying to isn’t anywhere close to as cynical as it could have been.
Frankly, the most generous interpretation of why this policy was put forward is an implicit acknowledgement that the way the US healthcare industry currently operates is adversely impacting the personal economies of a huge segment of the population in a way that isn’t really justified. With just a slight bit of cynicism, in that they they mention how it could affect mortgage acceptance rates, there’s also an acknowledgement of the knock-on effects this is having on other segments of the broader economy, which is probably what they care more about. And with just touch more cynicism we could say this is a move to garner more votes in the upcoming election. Or all of those things can be true simultaneously.
The state of the US health insurance industry and the relationship private equity has to healthcare in general really needs a complete overhaul. To say that this is a bandaid solution (if even that) isn’t the same as saying that it won’t do any good, and therefore shouldn’t be implemented.
How does it help them? Won’t credit card companies punish everyone and just assume everyone has the average amount of medical debt (or even worse) rather than pretend medical debt doesn’t exist?
cReDiT wOrThInEsS
like getting sick and living in america makes you unworthy?
