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.
Medical debt exists because we have failed as a society.
Medical debt is terrifying. You can do everything right: get an education, get a good job in a high paying field, live in a low COL area, save money, etc, yet a single accident or medical emergency can wipe it all out and then some. One fucking incident can take you from being comfortable middle class to destitute. It’s insane that we allow that to happen.
because America lets to many middlemen get in the way of your healthcare, each one of them eager to profit off your misfortune.
Which is why we need universal healthcare.
Remove the middle men. Remove the profiteering and massively reduce the costs.
And Medicare won’t pick up the tab until after youve liquidated your estate.
Your entire life’s work, even assuming modest stock gains, modest living, no vices, doesn’t matter. Gone. You can have medical insurance. Doesn’t matter. Gone. You’re fighting for a few good years left so you can put a bow on yourself and insurance is gonna drag it out, squeeze anything you got left, and make sure the case will last longer than you, guaranteeing them the win. That’s Capitalism baby!
Cuz you lost the genetic lottery.
I’m just playing.
It happens to us ALL, everyone of us thats lucky enough to live long enough. It’s GUARANTEED.
Losing the summation of your lifes efforts, so you can have medicine. The decks is so stacked against us, so rigged motherfucking Hitler would be in awe at our cruelty.
If you think you’re gonna beat the odds, things are gonna go your way. Gamestops going to the moon baby! Diamond hands! Have you looked around? Did you not notice inflation stealing an entire generations worth of retirement? Oh the Boomers have earned their fair share of hate, but maybe some of them will wake up now that they’ll have to sell their overly inflated house or go back to work. No twilight years for you Trish, so sorry. And don’t give me the “market forces” bullshit. Take that and that meritocracy bullshit, this insidious pair of myths, and shove them up a liberals ass, so they can die a cowards death from inaction. The largest stimulus of the pandemic went to the business class. Zero inflation. None. It didn’t even REGISTER against the dollar. I think the dollars value rose that entire month actually. But the people get some money, and ooOooOo no. One trip to the country club, a couple conversations and let Greedflation commence!
Millennials. Take note. Gen Z already gets it. There is no future that’s anything better than now. They’ll be no retirement. You’re guaranteed bankruptcy. Get hurt and your family loses everything, or you get put down like a sow. Thems the breaks. It’s not IF, it’s WHEN. Thats Capitalism, baby!
You know, of all the things we did during the pandemic, why didn’t we put a moratorium on all debt payments? All of them, world over. Why does everyone have to sacrifice but the bankers?
WHY THE FUCK DID WE HAVE TO GO WORK AND DIE SO THEY CAN EXPLOIT MONEY AT THE RATE THEYRE ACCUSTOMED TOO, WHEN THEY ALREADY OWN ALMOST ALL OF IT.
Lessons learned from poverty accountanting; morality aside, if we could just push the button and look away for 5 minutes, prudence tells me itd be cheaper to simply wait for the World Economic Forum to commence then drop a Rod from God on them, wiping Davos off the map.
Just like the Templar’s. When King Louie dropped a Rod from God on them. Yep. That’s totally what happened
Moving on however.
Ready to clean the gene pool of Affluenza yet? I sure as fuck am. Let’s do it now, while there’s still some vitality in us.
This is a pretty decent copy pasta, I hope this is original.
Them’s are my words, yessir
While I agree with the sentiment, it’s not exactly true — a good job in a high paying field should offer ACA-compliant health plans, which are required to have an out-of-pocket maximum. But yeah — do everything right except sign up for decent insurance, and it can be a world of shit. Which is pretty embarrassing for my country.
Until, of course, you can no longer work and lose your insurance.
What’s mind boggling to this Canadian, is many “Premium” health insurances which cost hundreds a month don’t do anything for you even when something happens until your bill reaches a deductible in the 1000s of USD!
Typical extended healthcare plans in Canada generally cover 60-100% of procedures, sometimes with a deductible of something almost always less than $100. I don’t have a clue what American insurance companies do other than screw their customers and pretend to know enough to deny treatment.
All these seem like funny words to me in Germany. We pay 10 € a day if we have to stay in a hospital, for the food and room. Also for some drugs there is copay, but it is limited to a few bucks.
Anyone who is a regular employee does not have to worry about paying for necessary medical procedures.
Is the 10 € a day covered by universal health care there or do you pay it outright you mean?
you have to pay it outright as it is not considered a health expense bur rather hospitality. Iirc. people how get social assistance can get it refunded.
My hospital deductible is $2000. I’ve had to pay it twice in the past two years. Plus lots of co-pays. I have “great” insurance.
I’m too scared at this point to ask what a hospital deductible is. The combined annual cost of the highest tier dental and health insurance at my work is less than half of $2000.
The world didn’t fail.
Only America.
Most of the world has figured this impossible problem out.
I didn’t say the world.
I agree and think this is a great step forward. I’m hoping it leaves to shit loads of unpaid medical debt, so maybe hospitals and doctors start pushing for a single payer system.
Yeah because we keep electing garbage heaps known as Republicans.
That and there’s always enough Democrats voting with them when we do elect a majority.
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.
Another way to look at it is that this starts to isolate medical finance from the rest of the system to lessen the economic shock of nationalizing healthcare.
Bingo. . This seems like a deft move by old Joe.
Got to get rid of insurance companies.
The ACA served to entrench them further.
deleted by creator
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.
deleted by creator
Seriously that’s not far from the truth.
Don’t get sick and make us pay for the coverage you paid for.
deleted by creator
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.
But could we start punishing the companies for
We don’t and never will.
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: “…”
Removed by mod
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.
Removed by mod
I’m confused by this statement because you’re making it seem like it’s some tech we’re trying to develop to reach the stars or something. There’s already so many examples of countries with healthcare (Norway was 1912, shesh). Majority of Americans want universal health care, there is already a system in place with medicaid/medicare that can be expanded upon, and with the article we’re all commenting under there are obvious life-long impacts people are suffering from that’s not even health issues from the current system.
You’re making it seem like the fight has just begun, this has been ongoing for decades. Asking everyone to “keep up the good fight” and enjoy the incremental change seems like a place of privilege when everyone is suffering.
Removed by mod
umm, ok? Have a good day, thanks for the reply I guess.
“why aren’t you cheering for the very slight loosening of our shackles??!1” asks the easily placated bootlicker…
It’s gotta move in that direction to get removed…
Removed by mod
So you’re not just a bootlicker, but an ableist too, well done you!
Removed by mod
deleted by creator
Republicans: NOOOOO!!! Except mine.
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.
God Bless Joe Biden
I lean right, far right if you ask a leftist, but universal healthcare is something this country needs. it’s fucking outrageous. health insurance is a scam and a license to steal.
deleted by creator
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 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.”
Exactly this.
I think the credit score system is a blight on society.
But not being able to rent a home cause you went to the emergency room and racked up 150k in debt that you can never pay off thus seeing your score collapse in on itself will always be bullshit of the highest order.
This is definitely a step in the right direction.
Yeah I mean… credit score is getting quite close to the China social credit score… as in used for everything and see if you are worth.
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
If you get hospitalized in the U.S. and show effort to pay they can’t sue you or send it to collections last I knew. So if you wake up with a $100k hospitazation charge, you can pay $10 a month and say it is all you have and they can not come after you. So if you live for another 40 years, that would be a pain, but only cost $4800 total.
Taking it off your credit score just would make it so when you go to rent a roof over your head, those outstanding charges won’t show up I assume. Giving you better odds to be able to not be homeless and get the great opportunity to pay $1400 a month for a property you’ll never own.
