OFFICIALS LEGISLATION INTEREST GROUPS PUBLIC STATEMENTS COMMITTEES VETOES

Comprehensive Debt Collection Improvement Act

Floor Speech

Date: May 13, 2021
Location: Washington, DC
Issues: Business and Consumers Health and Health Care

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Ms. TLAIB. Mr. Speaker, this bill is critically important to our families across the country.

I am proud that this bill includes a provision that I have introduced the past two sessions of Congress, the Consumer Protection for Medical Debt Collection Act.

Nearly 20 percent of adults have one or more medical debt collections listed on their credit reports. That means one in five of our neighbors across the country may be denied housing, transportation, or other necessities because of a sudden health crisis or visit to the emergency room. That hits particularly hard in communities like mine, where residents already face so many challenges with access to credit.

Treating medical debt the same as other debt is just not right. It leads to irreparable harm to residents who simply just needed health and medical care.

Medical debt is the leading cause of personal bankruptcy in our country, and the pandemic has only made the medical debt crisis worse; 2.5 million people saw medical debt enter collections since the pandemic began, totaling $2.2 billion in medical debt.

H.R. 2547 will provide protections and safeguards to our neighbors who, through no fault of their own, got sick and could not afford medical care due to the broken healthcare system.

This bill would prevent the collection of medical debt for 2 years from the date of medical billing and prohibits credit agencies from reporting all medical collections for a year.

Medical bills and reimbursements are often vague and confusing, so this gives our neighbors time to figure out what they actually do owe.

Finally, this bill would ban medical debt from a medically necessary procedure from ever appearing on your credit report.

No one chooses to get sick. Undergoing a medically necessary procedure should never haunt someone financially. It has no place on our credit reports.

I thank Chairwoman Waters for her leadership on this vital legislation, and I urge my colleagues to support it.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT


Source
arrow_upward