Despite growing evidence of the harm caused by medical debt, hundreds of U.S. hospitals maintain policies to aggressively pursue patients for unpaid bills, using tactics such as lawsuits, selling patient accounts to debt buyers, and reporting patients to credit rating agencies, a KHN investigation shows.Byline: Noam N. Levey
December...Arizona News
Arizona voters overwhelmingly approved Proposition 209 in the November election, but a Maricopa County Superior Court judge has signed a temporary restraining order preventing its enforcement until civil action has been filed against the state.
Proposition 209 reduces the maximum interest rate on medical debt from 10% to 3% and would...Arizona News
Proposition 209, the Predatory Debt Collection Act, which would intervene against creditors on behalf of Arizonans with medical debt, passed during the 2022 Midterm Election.
Prop. 209 will lower the maximum interest rates on medical debt and changes rules for debt collection. According to an analysis by the Kaiser Family Foundation...
The American insurance-based health care industry certainly has downsides, but none so notorious and archaic as medical debt. Nearly one in five U.S. households have medical debt, and as a result many Americans have lost their homes, assets, had their credit scores lowered beyond repair or been denied subsequent health...
As the COVID-19-related public health emergency (PHE) winds down, concerns are being raised that the structures of support provided to the public during the crisis will have a negative impact on beneficiaries when the PHE comes to a close.
These include Medicaid enrollees, who have not been reviewed for qualification by state Medicaid...
Despite over 90% of the United States population having some form of health insurance, medical debt remains a persistent problem. An analysis of government data estimates that 9% of adults – roughly 23 million people – owe more than $250 due to health costs. Half those people report owing more than $2,000.
These estimates come...
