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Medical debt

Why one New York health system stopped suing its patients

by Noam Levey
May 14, 2024
Most U.S. hospitals aggressively pursue patients for unpaid bills. One New York hospital system decided to work with them instead.
Nationally, nearly half of adults are unable to cover a $500 medical bill without going into debt, a 2022 KFF poll found.
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Health and Wealth

Lawmakers and hospitals are divided on providing free care for tax breaks

by David Brancaccio and Alex Schroeder
May 3, 2024
Nonprofit hospitals say legislative efforts that require them to provide more free care could hurt the people they are intended to help.
Nonprofit hospitals in the U.S. provided $16 billion in charity care in 2020, according to health policy research group KFF, while receiving $28 billion in tax breaks.
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Health and Wealth

Has legislation to stop surprise medical bills worked?

by David Brancaccio and Alex Schroeder
Apr 1, 2024
Yes and no. Patients have avoided millions of surprise bills, but a plan to cut wider health care spending has seen mixed results.
"Ultimately, this law is protecting more people from the kinds of medical debt that you're covering on the show, but that protection may come at a price: higher insurance premiums for millions," said Dan Gorenstein, executive editor at Tradeoffs.
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Health and Wealth

How medical debt can exacerbate pain and suffering

by David Brancaccio , Meredith Garretson and Kelly Silvera
Mar 29, 2024
As part of a live event, we break down the medical debts that some Americans owe and the shame, guilt and uncertainty that can come with it.
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Health and Wealth

How can we build a better health care system?

by David Brancaccio , Meredith Garretson and Kelly Silvera
Mar 28, 2024
Experts say 3 million people in the U.S. have more than $10,000 in medical debt each.
"Whatever you do, don't put [medical debt] on a credit card," said RIP Medical Debt's Allison Sesso. "Once you put it on a credit card, it's consumer debt — it's not medical debt anymore."
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Health and Wealth

Health and Wealth: Why Americans are drowning in medical debt

by David Brancaccio , Meredith Garretson and Kelly Silvera
Mar 27, 2024
Almost a third of all working adults in the United States are carrying some kind of medical debt — that’s about 15% of all U.S. households.
Medical debt is the leading cause of bankruptcy in the United States and affects almost a third of working Americans.
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Election 2024

Health care tops list of voters' economic worries

by Mitchell Hartman
Feb 22, 2024
While inflation is moderating, some health-related costs are still climbing.
Health care affordability and inflation are top concerns for voters this year.
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More people are falling behind on debt, but fewer are in collections

by Samantha Fields
Nov 8, 2023
Just before the pandemic, the New York Fed found that about 9% of people had bills that ended up in collections. Now, less than 5% do.
Medical debt previously made up about 60% of debt in collections. But data shows it doesn’t tell you much about someone’s creditworthiness.
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Major credit bureaus are changing how they report unpaid medical bills

by Samantha Fields
Jul 12, 2022
A new policy could soften medical debt's impact on consumers' credit reports and credit scores.
In many bases, the balance of unpaid medical debt is no more than $500. Starting next year, those balances won't be on credit reports.
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With the CFPB's future uncertain, New York and other states want to step in

by Justin Ho
Mar 5, 2020
Some states are stepping up their plans to regulate the debt collection industry. Consumer advocates say the moves come at a time when Federal protections are weakening.
Gov. Cuomo announced a plan to crack down on fraud with additional oversight of the debt collection industry.
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