Lawmakers in a dozen states -- including Colorado -- and the U.S. Congress have pushed legislation to curtail the financial burden that’s pushed many into untenable situations: forgoing needed care for fear of added debt or slashing grocery budgets.
DENVER — Cindy Powers was driven into bankruptcy by 19 life-saving abdominal operations. Medical debt started stacking up for Lindsey Vance after she crashed her skateboard and had to get nine stitches in her chin. And for Misty Castaneda, open heart surgery for a disease she’d had since birth saddled her with $200,000 in bills.
Some of the bills would create medical debt relief programs or protect personal property from collections, while others would lower interest rates, keep medical debt from tanking credit scores or require greater transparency in the costs of care. But there are opponents. Colorado Republican state Sen. Janice Rich said she worried that the proposal could “constrain hospitals’ debt collecting ability and hurt their cash flow.”
“Only recently have we begun to pick up the pieces,” said James Powers, Cindy’s husband, during his February testimony in favor of Colorado’s bill. In Colorado, New York, New Jersey, Illinois, Massachusetts and the U.S. Congress lawmakers are contemplating bills that would bar medical debt from being included on consumer reports, thereby protecting debtors’ credit scores.
“I’m trying to play catch-up for the last 20 years,” said Castaneda, 45, a hairstylist from Grand Junction on Colorado’s Western Slope.
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States confront medical debt that's bankrupting millionsLawmakers in over a dozen states and the U.S. Congress are tackling medical debt, which has become a leading cause of personal bankruptcy
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States confront medical debt that's bankrupting millionsLawmakers in over a dozen states and the U.S. Congress are tackling medical debt, which has become a leading cause of personal bankruptcy.
Les mer »
States confront medical debt that's bankrupting millionsLawmakers in over a dozen states and the U.S. Congress are tackling medical debt, which has become a leading cause of personal bankruptcy.
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States confront medical debt that's bankrupting millionsLawmakers in over a dozen states and the U.S. Congress are tackling medical debt, which has become a leading cause of personal bankruptcy. The Kaiser Family Foundation reports an estimated 100 million Americans have amassed nearly $200 billion in collective medical debt — almost the size of Greece’s economy. The financial burden has pushed millions of Americans into financial uncertainty. The flurry of bills — in states including Colorado, New York and Florida — would create medical debt relief programs, protect certain personal property from collections, lower interest rates or keep medical debt from tanking credit scores.
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