Posted on 12/16/2023 8:47:11 AM PST by lowbridge
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.
The new law will take effect immediately. “No one should ever have to make a horrible choice between their physical health and their financial health,” Hochul said.
The new law won’t necessarily stop all medical debt from affecting New Yorkers’ credit scores. It won’t apply to debt that is charged to a credit card, unless the card was issued specifically for health services, and it doesn’t apply to out-of-state health care providers.
People hit with hefty, sometimes unexpected medical bills can experience roadblocks in renting a house, securing car loans, or getting a new job because of a bad credit report. Credit reports are meant to measure how responsible a person is with their money, but they don’t account for life’s unexpected realities, like suffering from a disease or injury, supporters of the law argued.
(Excerpt) Read more at wwnytv.com ...
Oh. I know. Medicare is in charge. Medicare sets prices and standard for all of it including insurance
Good post.
I worked in the field of commercial lending and at one point they had us looking at financing hospitals.
We concluded (unanimously) they were extremely risky over the long term.
From a financial perspective they operate like several dozen small businesses with all the high risk and (to be blunt) mediocre management practices of undercapitalized small businesses all stuck under one roof or on one campus.
This is the exact financial model that killed the old conglomerates—the hospital administrators looked like they were managing something but in our opinion they were just putting out fires and their business was out of control.
As you say they are totally at the mercy of government funding of various kinds (Medicare, Medicaid) which vary wildly from year to year and decade to decade.
There was no way we would touch a thirty year mortgage note for construction on such a wacko business.
Furthermore, hospitals provide care to people with no income and no insurance. A homeless penniless guy from another country in the ICU for 2 weeks is part of what we’re paying for. Here in Texas that’s a lot more common than what people are willing to admit
Medicare is government taking care of us until it is actually redistribution pulling money away from working stiffs.
Last thing the middle class should do in addition to paying for people who choose to not work is get dinged on borrowing for homes and cars
Leftists doing all they can....to further the destruction of this once great state.
You do not understand credit reports.
They are not arbitrary measurements of what a great person you are.
They measure credit risk for borrowers.
If you are a borrower you need the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
If you cannot get it you would be stupid to make the loan.
Well no. New York says. No. So does Texas. Wisely
One more thing - the bill rate is also referred to as the ‘Charge Rate”, depending on the organization. Whatever the org calls it, it resembles the sticker price.
If you read my other posts you know I used to be involved in commercial lending.
That is different than individual lending but the core principals are the same.
I don’t loan you money until I know everything about you—cradle to today.
I assume you are lying.
I assume the credit report misses stuff.
I dig and dig and dig—and in the case of commercial loans I would then be cross-examined by a loan committee with folks who had been in the business for decades—and they assume I have not done enough homework and they cross examine me mercilessly.
The notion that you could successfully hide outstanding hospital bills (because New York and Texas says so) is the kind of naivete I expect from leftists but find disappointing when I hear it from Freepers.
Top and Bottom are sucking the life out of the Middle Class in so many ways.
This is just another example.
The decline of the Middle Class is by design.
Again. New York says medical bills can’t go on credit reports.
The entire economy is in a disaster. The middle class is working to pay the government to pay for people who won’t work.
That needs to get fixed
The government- Medicare in this case- charges the middle class to pay for people with no insurance and no means to pay their hospital bills
I know someone- in New York- with a history of cancer who pays $2000 per month for medical insurance monthly. Out of pocket. She has a $12000 deductible. She pays $1200 out of pocket for a mammogram. She says she’s paying for people who don’t pay
She gave up on having a good credit score a long time ago. Just for living life, raising a kid helping her husband, a well paid attorney
You’re not going to lend her money
20 to 35 year olds are not getting married not having kids
This government- in charge of Medicare, who came up with medicare, is 33 trillion in debt. Of course they have to ease up on people but they are a credit risk themselves. The debt is rising monthly on the interest charges. We’ll never even see payment on the principal.
The middle class that you want to not lend to for a home is what is paying the government to mismanage this mess
[sheepishly] I kinda don’t have a problem with this, especially if medical debts = pharma debts. That whole system is an arrogant rogue blood-sucking travesty.
Maybe if I researched it more ... but on its face, I might be OK with it.
“From a financial perspective they operate like several dozen small businesses with all the high risk and (to be blunt) mediocre management practices of undercapitalized small businesses all stuck under one roof or on one campus.“
When I started working at the health system I had already retired once. I took the job because it was a field I knew(telecom) within the hospital. I had been a SVP for a very large bank and had about 1,200 people working for me. In my hospital role, I was running a consolidation project.
Throughout the entire organization I was stunned by the utter lack of professional management training. No supervisor training. No budgeting training. And almost no financial analysis for capital expenses-because there was no set 3-5-10 year capital plan.
They were all smart when it came to medicine. But these docs thought they were smart about EVERYTHING. I spent more time laughing at the way stuff was run than I should have. I would trust these people with my life—but I wouldn’t trust them to manage a lemonade stand.
What was most frustrating is that they were so closed minded to an outsider, they missed opportunities to improve the service, the customer base, and their bottom line. I was never so happy to leave a place after the project ended.
See this is what its all intended for, “It truly hits low-income earners” the rest of us could pound sand
-PJ
Part of what they’re saying is this- a tens of thousands per year per person deductible on top of a tens of thousands per year per person insurance bill on top of medical bills is too much for anyone paying for a mortgage on top of property taxes along with tens of thousands per year for a car and car insurance and repairs and a thousand per months to feed a family is too much for anyone to keep up with
In New York in particular where property taxes are 10 to 20 thousand a year
Bye in New York they allow people on government assistance to vote. Who thought of that?
And New York is about $80 billion in debt inviting non working foreign people to come and live off the government which has no money.
Actually, I could be wrong though, NY never used to report medical debt to the credit agencies. I think they only recently did start to report it - so she’s going to stop something that they just started to do...
My husband was always throwing away his med bills, LOL. I’d find a old stack sometimes, and pay those. But we had amazing insurance before obamacare, and not too bad after that crap was forced on us, so his/our med bills were little ones.
But not once did any of those unpaid bills end up on our credit history. Not until right before we fled NY 2 years ago, then I think there was a small one.
“in New York they allow people on government assistance to vote.”
I assumed that’s the case in every state. It isn’t?
I saw raised in NY, and my family has been there since the 1700s. It’s terrible re taxes, government overreach, etc. The assistance for seniors is pretty good, and my mom does OK with medical.
“in New York they allow people on government assistance to vote.”
It is I don’t know why I put it that way.
Good. Many years ago it was standard that such debt not be included in credit reports.
What do you feed it?
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