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.
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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.
Now you are cleared for more debt. System is working as intended.
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.
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
Just throw a band aid on that kidney failure and call it a day
Not if you’re bleeding out.
Removed by mod
So just like cannabis prohibition, minimum wage that never increases, and abortion bans, medical debt wrecking your credit is now a Red State Problem that will never be fixed at the national level.
They don’t want that down there. Those folks who vote red want it that way. They like the struggle to survive… apparently.
There are a lot of us who haven’t moved simply because we can’t afford it
And there’s the attitude I’m talking about.
These policies are designed to get people who are likely to vote for Democrats to leave red states, making them even harder to flip. This is how you get a permanent Republican majority in the Senate: by pretending that the victims of Republican policy deserve it because opposing it at the national level involves work.
States can ignore what the senate tells them to do.
You might not know this, but marijuana is still a schedule 1 controlled substance.
It can be
I mean… good. I say this as someone living in Texas. Just let it play out, people in red states will suffer, and it’ll probably be their kids that figure shit out.
The point of these policies is to get Democrats to leave and further cement Republican majorities in red states. If Republicans secure a permanent Senate majority like they’re trying to do here, do you suspect they’ll be content with keeping their policies at the state level?
Oh well, at least you’ll get to see more stories about women denied abortions so you can laugh at them and say they deserved it, just like Republicans do.
The greatest waste of resources is improving a system the should not exist
In most modern, developed countries, medical debt doesn’t even exist.
Better idea: pass socialized health insurance. Much better than companies pretending to charge made up rates and people pretending to pay them.
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!
How does this work in practice? What happens if you just don’t pay medical debt?
They can still collect on the debt by garnishing your wages. The problem is that if you don’t have access to credit because of your bad score then you have to rely on predatory lenders such as buy-here-pay-here car lots. You will also have problems trying to rent an apartment or buying a house.
Such person might be blacklisted for non-emergency care at places where they didn’t pay.
Go out of town for elective procedures, got it.
Getting warmer… now git rid of medical debt
Christ on a bike, that woman’s teeth are so white they look like they could host a cheese and wine party
Who TF thinks that looks good?
Socrates: “Strong minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; weak minds discuss people.”
Then there are people discussing teeth.
I guarantee a college freshman quoted this on their first break back home
Hansl -
Mmmmmnnnmmnnnn
Cos his bleached teeth crumbled to dust 😂
She’s from Buffalo, it blends in with all of the snow
Why is Jesus riding a bike?
Walking long distances in sandals sucks.
Not because his chalky teeth are crumbling anyway lol
Those are veneers.
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!
There are a lot of things tied to credit reports that have nothing to do with taking on debt.
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.
Good now do strudent loan debt as well. Also you need a special license to even attempt to collect debt anymore. License costs 10k and requires that you pass an exam in that state about debt collection laws.
