John,

Medical debt is a big burden for people nationwide.

Medical debt almost always happens because someone becomes unexpectedly sick or injured in an accident, and is forced on Americans due to our for-profit health care system that unfairly burdens people whose incomes are low or moderate.

The repercussions can be devastating. When medical debt is reported on credit reports, it can be much harder for someone to secure employment or housing. It’s likely to increase interest rates or make it harder to get other credit to buy a car or a home. And perhaps worst of all, unpaid medical debt can have the effect of making people avoid needed medical care in the future.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) estimates at least $88 billion in medical debt appears on American credit reports.

Now, the CFPB has issued a new regulation to stop credit reporting agencies from using medical debt in credit scores. Before it can become law, it must go through a public comment period―and you can be sure that Big Pharma and health insurance company lobbyists will submit thousands of comments from “people” who want to stop it.

It’s critical that we show massive public support for this proposed regulation. Sign and send your official comment to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau now in support of their new rule to remove medical debt from credit reports.

Decades of discrimination in employment, housing, and health care access has led to 56% of Black adults owing money for a medical bill versus 37% of white adults.¹

54% of Black people in the U.S. live in the South, where most states did not expand Medicaid.² Not surprisingly, these states also have the highest rates of medical debt in collections.³ When all of this is taken into account, it’s easy to see how structural racism plays a major part in the unequal impact credit bureaus reporting medical debt has on Black and brown communities.

Under the proposed CFPB regulation, medical debt will not appear on consumer credit reports at all. And, debt collectors will be barred from using medical devices as loan collateral, protecting consumers from having their wheelchairs or prosthetic limbs repossessed if the debt goes unpaid. (Yes, this actually happens!)⁴

Big Pharma, Wall Street, and Health insurance companies are doing everything they can to stop this critical new regulation. That’s why we have to step up now. Click here to sign and send your official comment to the CFPB in support of the new rule.

Thank you for all you do,

Deborah Weinstein
Executive Director, CHN Action

¹ Health Care Debt In The U.S.: The Broad Consequences Of Medical And Dental Bills
² The Growing Diversity of Black America
³ Exploring the connection between financial assistance for medical care and medical collections
⁴ Vet whose prosthetic legs were repossessed is getting new pair