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 ...
Come on, now. We all know Obamacare fixed everything broken in the medical system. Nobody should have any medical debt. Right?
That’s right, I used my $2,500 in savings promised by Obozo on a pet unicorn. Sadly, it turns out it doesn’t fart skittles though.
She’s not that bright.
Socialized Medicine, for all intents and purposes.
yet a further way to reduce the availability of health care
(and cutting back on health care will cost innocent lives, not that the DNC politicians give a sheit)
In all fairness the medical industry is organize theft because they rarely ever publish their prices. Medical billing is a predatory practice that needs to be reformed.
Sounds like the good governor is encouraging people to file false net worth reports to creditors.
I went out in the front yard and generously rubbed that on the unicorn, the neighbors saw it and called the police.
Send bail money please.
Texas has done this.
“Medical billing is a predatory practice that needs to be reformed.”
I have to agree with that. I use a CPAP machine and the billing is nearly impossible to decipher. “Durable Medical Equipment Company 1” (DME1) seems to have one or two subsidiaries that they tossed into the mix (DME2). DME1 has DME2 submit invoices to our insurance company. It has a statement like “Our cost $300 but we are billing insurance $100.” Then insurance pays $84 and I get a bill for $16.
How did the original DME2 bill of $300 get submitted as a $100 invoice?
I’ve talked extensively to DME1 and the insurance company and nobody can answer. The subsidiary DME2 is never involved in the discussions.
It is weird and messed up beyond belief. And this is a very simple business deal where I’m buying (they call it “renting” but it’s an actual rent-to-own deal) a CPAP machine and even that is all foiled up.
Then there are equally messed up invoices for supplies.
I can’t begin to imagine how fouled up it must be for an expensive operation and hospital stay.
This is classic lefty thinking—ignore any possible second or third or fourth order effects.
If credit reports do not accurately reflect credit risk then those who rely on them will have to raise their standards to offset that risk.
At the end of the day there is no free lunch—somebody will pay for it.
And it won't be the fat-cat Billionaires, it will be the Middle Class.
Most of the time medical expenses aren’t incurred through the deliberate poor choices (lifestyle not included) or financial boneheadedness of the creditor.
Add to that, medical costs, if not so serious, are laughably off the charts when compared to other essentials.
Having an unplanned medical emergency is a far cry from going on an irresponsible spending spree, IMO.
Credit reports measure a lot of things—some of those things reflect the character of the creditor.
However they are also measuring the financial capacity of the potential creditor to pay their bills—even if the financial difficulty is due to no fault of their own.
Shortening the foot long ruler to eleven inches to be “fair” does not make sense at the end of the day.
Of course it makes sense if it gets people to vote Rat because they are “The Party of the Little Guy”.
We call the ICU the expensive care unit. A no fault accident can get someone owing millions in a week. Catastrophic insurance for a 30 year old covers 70% with a $12 k deductible.
Putting that on a credit report would be ruinous. Well the Biden administration wants to ruin us they want us to be obedient subjects. This ruling must have taken some fighting.
This should be titled the “How To Prevent Health Care Providers From Treating Poor People” act.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.