Medical-Debt Watchdog Gets Sidelined by the New Administration
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is offline — for now. Here’s what that could mean for people with medical debt.
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Trump Team Takes Aim at State Laws Shielding Consumers’ Credit Scores From Medical Debt
Reversing guidance from the Biden administration, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau concludes that states cannot bar medical debt from their residents’ credit reports.
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Biden Administration Bars Medical Debt From Credit Scores
The move, which comes less than two weeks before President-elect Donald Trump is set to take office, represents a challenge to the new administration.
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With Trump on the Way, Advocates Look to States To Pick Up Medical Debt Fight
Patient and consumer advocates fear a new Trump administration will scale back federal efforts to expand financial protections for patients and shield them from debt.
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Harris Backs Slashing Medical Debt. Trump’s ‘Concepts’ Worry Advocates.
The Biden administration has taken significant steps to address a problem that burdens 100 million people in America, but gains would be jeopardized by a Trump win, advocates say.
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With Medical Debt Burdening Millions, a Financial Regulator Steps In to Help
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, created after the Great Recession of 2007-09, has increasingly started policing the health care system.
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Biden Administration Advances Plan To Remove Medical Debt From Credit Scores
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau proposed federal regulations that would prevent unpaid medical bills from being counted on consumers’ credit reports.
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As Trump Punts on Medical Debt, Battle Over Patient Protections Moves to States
Some states are enacting medical debt laws as the Trump administration pulls back federal protections. Elsewhere, industry opposition has derailed legislation.
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Even Political Rivals Agree That Medical Debt Is an Urgent Issue
In red and blue states, state lawmakers from both parties are expanding protections for patients burdened by medical debt.
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Biden Administration to Ban Medical Debt From Americans’ Credit Scores
The White House said the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will develop new regulations that would prevent unpaid medical bills from being counted on credit reports.
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Biden Administration Issues New Warning About Medical Credit Cards
Americans paid an estimated $1 billion in deferred interest on medical debt in just three years, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau reports. The agency warns against medical credit cards, which are often pitched right in doctors’ offices.
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Medical Debt Is Disappearing From Americans’ Credit Reports, Lifting Scores
As credit rating agencies have removed small unpaid medical bills from consumer credit, scores have gone up, a new study finds.
A Few More Good Things From 2025
Season 14, Episode 6"An Arm and a Leg" looks back on state laws passed in 2025 aimed at removing medical debts from credit reports and reining in corporate influence on medicine.
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Biden Administration Urged to Take More Aggressive Steps to Relieve Medical Debt
Consumer and patient advocates push for new federal rules to protect Americans from debt collectors and force hospitals to make financial assistance more accessible.
Credit Card, Please
Season 9, Episode 8What do you do when a medical provider asks you to provide a credit card upfront? In this episode, we hear advice about your options in this situation.
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Some Private Companies Charge Hefty Fees to Help Veterans With Disability Claims
Unaccredited companies promise to help veterans file for disability benefits. But unlike the thousands of service representatives who have been vetted and approved by the Department of Veterans Affairs to provide aid, these “medical consultants” or “coaches” operate with no restrictions on how much they can charge.
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An Air Force Career Held up Because of Debt Owed for Medical Bills
Emergency room care left Samaria Bradford with $5,000 in medical bills. Now she has to track down and pay that debt before she can hope to enlist in the military.
More Medicaid Messiness
Episode 316At least 30 states are reinstating coverage for children wrongly removed from the rolls under Medicaid redetermination, the federal government reported. It’s just the latest hiccup in the massive effort to review the eligibility of Medicaid beneficiaries now that the program’s pandemic-era expansion has expired. And federal oversight of the so-called unwinding would be further complicated by an impending government shutdown. Rachel Roubein of The Washington Post, Sandhya Raman of CQ Roll Call, and Sarah Karlin-Smith of Pink Sheet join KFF Health News chief Washington correspondent Julie Rovner to discuss these issues and more. Also this week, Rovner interviews KFF Health News’ Samantha Liss, who reported and wrote the latest KFF Health News-NPR “Bill of the Month” feature, about a hospital bill that followed a deceased patient’s family for more than a year.
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Hundreds of Hospitals Sue Patients or Threaten Their Credit, a KHN Investigation Finds. Does Yours?
An examination of billing policies and practices at more than 500 hospitals across the country shows widespread reliance on aggressive collection tactics.
Democrats See Opportunity in GOP Threats to Repeal Health Law
Episode 325Sensing that Republicans are walking into a political minefield by threatening once again to repeal the Affordable Care Act, the Biden administration is looking to capitalize by rolling out a series of initiatives aimed at high drug prices and other consequences of “corporate greed in health care.” Meanwhile, the Supreme Court hears a case that could determine when and how much victims of the opioid crisis can collect from Purdue Pharma, the drug company that lied about how addictive its drug, OxyContin, really was. Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico, Anna Edney of Bloomberg News, and Rachana Pradhan of KFF Health News join KFF Health News chief Washington correspondent Julie Rovner to discuss these issues and more. Also this week, Rovner interviews Dan Weissmann of KFF Health News’ sister podcast, “An Arm and a Leg,” about his investigation into hospitals suing their patients over unpaid bills.