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A federal judge has overturned a Biden-era rule to remove medical debt from consumer credit reports but Maine residents will still be protected under a new state law.
"The majority of those with medical debt have reported that their credit score has been negatively impacted," Ende reported. "This is going to help thousands of people in Maine."
State Sen. Rachel Talbot Ross, one of multiple Democrats who sponsored the bill, said in her testimony that the measure would ease the financial burden of medical care for Mainers, calling medical debt a problem that is “pervasive” and “devastating,” and often forces people to delay or forgo health care.
Consumers for Affordable Health Care, a Maine advocacy organization, found in a survey that nearly half of the state’s households have medical debt and nearly a third have been contacted by a collection agency for a medical bill within the past two years.
Kate Ende of Consumers for Affordable Health Care says all of these changes to the marketplace would mostly serve to disenroll people from coverage. And while that may save the federal government money, she said those costs would merely be shifted to others, including hospital emergency rooms.
