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submitted 11 months ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/news@lemmy.world

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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[-] Syo@kbin.social 82 points 11 months ago

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.

[-] Bakkoda@sh.itjust.works 36 points 11 months ago

Now you are cleared for more debt. System is working as intended.

[-] Drusas@kbin.social 7 points 11 months ago

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.

[-] henfredemars@infosec.pub 40 points 11 months ago

This is a band-aid measure that addresses neither the broken healthcare system nor cost of living crisis.

[-] lolcatnip@reddthat.com 43 points 11 months ago

A bandaid is better than nothing.

[-] DeadPand@midwest.social 9 points 11 months ago

I would call a band aid solution an insult at this point

[-] Cosmonauticus@lemmy.world 6 points 11 months ago

Just throw a band aid on that kidney failure and call it a day

[-] aniki@lemm.ee -2 points 11 months ago

Not if you're bleeding out.

[-] ExLisper@linux.community 1 points 11 months ago

It's better than nothing if you're bleeding out. It's not better than nothing if you're allergic to band-aids.

[-] Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world 27 points 11 months ago

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.

[-] mibo80@lemm.ee 6 points 11 months ago

They don't want that down there. Those folks who vote red want it that way. They like the struggle to survive... apparently.

[-] HawlSera@lemm.ee 6 points 11 months ago

There are a lot of us who haven't moved simply because we can't afford it

[-] Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world 1 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

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.

[-] chitak166@lemmy.world 1 points 11 months ago

States can ignore what the senate tells them to do.

You might not know this, but marijuana is still a schedule 1 controlled substance.

[-] HawlSera@lemm.ee 2 points 11 months ago
[-] TexMexBazooka@lemm.ee -1 points 11 months ago

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.

[-] Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world 4 points 11 months ago

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.

[-] GiddyGap@lemm.ee 20 points 11 months ago

In most modern, developed countries, medical debt doesn't even exist.

[-] Pons_Aelius@kbin.social 18 points 11 months ago

The greatest waste of resources is improving a system the should not exist

[-] SeaJ@lemm.ee 15 points 11 months ago

Better idea: pass socialized health insurance. Much better than companies pretending to charge made up rates and people pretending to pay them.

[-] ArbitraryValue@sh.itjust.works 13 points 11 months ago

How does this work in practice? What happens if you just don't pay medical debt?

[-] PriorityMotif@lemmy.world 17 points 11 months ago

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.

[-] Cosmocrat@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Such person might be blacklisted for non-emergency care at places where they didn't pay.

[-] CADmonkey@lemmy.world 4 points 11 months ago

Go out of town for elective procedures, got it.

[-] be_excellent_to_each_other@kbin.social 12 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

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.)

[-] jballs@sh.itjust.works 8 points 11 months ago

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!

[-] HawlSera@lemm.ee 10 points 11 months ago

Getting warmer.. now git rid of medical debt

[-] afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.world 4 points 11 months ago

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.

this post was submitted on 14 Dec 2023
547 points (98.9% liked)

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