Unpaid medical debt will no longer appear in New York residents’ credit reports under a bill signed into law by Gov. Kathy Hochul on Wednesday.
The law prohibits credit agencies from collecting information about or reporting medical debt. The law also bans hospitals and health care providers in the state from reporting such debt to the agencies.
New York is the second state after Colorado to enact such a law. A similar nationwide measure is being considered by the federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
“Medical debt is such a vicious cycle. It truly hits low-income earners, but it forces them to stay low-income earners because they can’t never get out from under it,” Hochul, a Democrat, said at the bill- signing ceremony in New York City.
You must log in or register to comment.
One day you black out. You wake up. You’re now $20,000 in debt.
None of this debt makes sense to begin with. This change doesn’t fix that.
No, but it’s a step in the right direction. You’re not going to have your application for an apartment denied due to that credit hit now, for example.
Now you are cleared for more debt. System is working as intended.
In most modern, developed countries, medical debt doesn’t even exist.
Wonderful. Other states? Biden? Take notes. I can’t imagine this being anything but popular come election time.
(Except for the crowd that will vote Republican no matter what - and fuck them anyway. This will help them too even if they refuse to acknowledge it.)
The Biden administration announced this a few months ago. I haven’t been keeping up with the latest status though.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/biden-administration-to-ban-medical-debt-credit-scores/
Thanks for the additional info!
Better idea: pass socialized health insurance. Much better than companies pretending to charge made up rates and people pretending to pay them.
This is a band-aid measure that addresses neither the broken healthcare system nor cost of living crisis.
A bandaid is better than nothing.
I would call a band aid solution an insult at this point
Not if you’re bleeding out.
It’s better than nothing if you’re bleeding out. It’s not better than nothing if you’re allergic to band-aids.
Getting warmer… now git rid of medical debt
The greatest waste of resources is improving a system the should not exist
How does this work in practice? What happens if you just don’t pay medical debt?
Such person might be blacklisted for non-emergency care at places where they didn’t pay.
This is the dumbest solution. People are strapped down by awful debt. Instead of helping them with that, they’re going to make it easier for these indebted people to take on more debt. Brilliant!
Your credit score isn’t just about taking on debt. If your credit is bad, you might not even be able to rent an apartment. Some employers also look at credit score, so it could prevent you from getting a job. It also means you’ll have higher interest rates if, for example, you need to finance a car.
