Biden ban on medical debt on credit reports is great news
The Biden Administration plans to ban medical debt from being reported to credit bureaus. This is great news for the American people.
The healthcare system is about to be shaken up severely. The Biden Administration just implemented an initiative to make medical debt not go towards your credit score.
(getty images)
So why is this important? It means that the American people will not be able to as easily go into crippling decay from having an illness. The young and old in this country all should have the right to affordable healthcare. This is a step in the right direction to reaching that goal. By blocking companies from using credit, that means they can’t force you to pay them at the expense of your other monthly payments. Now they will have to either lower rates so people will pay or take on the fact many people won’t out of necessity.
(francis chung @ e&e news)
However, there is an issue facing the Biden Administration. Republicans are trying their best to get rid of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The CFPB is one of the main sources of push for these types of policies. Republicans, many of whom are deep in the pockets of Big Pharma, fear that not only will they ban medical debt from credit reports, but they’ll attempt to go further. In my eyes, I would hope that the Republicans are right about them doing more progressive reforms of the system. Anyways, there is unfortunately the case of Consumer Financial Protection Bureau v. Community Financial Services Association of America, Limited. This case seeks to basically abolish this entire department. This will be overseen by the 6-3 Republican supermajority within the Supreme Court. There is no telling how this will go, especially after the overturning of Roe v. Wade.
(getty images)
Medical debt, and subsequently the negative credit implications that come with it, fuel the rampant homelessness crisis in the United States. According to the study hyperlinked, people in Seattle with medical debt were likely to be homeless 2 years longer than the ones without medical debt. There is plenty more studies (and not enough time in this article) that say similar things proving causation between medical debt and health issues with homelessness. This legislation passing would directly support the ending of homelessness. We should whole heartedly be paying attention to this initiative and take action when the Republicans try to work against the American people’s best interests.