Democratic lawmakers introduced a bill to cancel all existing medical debt in the U.S., which is estimated at $220 billion.
The bill would wipe medical debt off credit reports, make it “illegal to collect medical debt incurred prior to the bill’s enactment, and create a private right of action for patients,” and be introduced by Senators Bernie Sanders, Jeff Merkley, Ro Khanna, and Rashida Tlaib.
Like student debt legislation, it does not fix the system to prevent future medical debt. Health care providers can still surge prices, up-charge according to patients’ insurance and run up patients’ bills as they see fit. The bill is a bandaid on a broken system and it most likely won’t get the support it needs to pass because too many lawmakers get money from that broken system.
