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 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.