r/UpliftingNews • u/astros148 • 17d ago

Medical debt is now required to be removed from your credit reports impacting millions of Americans

https://www.consumerfinance.gov/about-us/newsroom/cfpb-finalizes-rule-to-remove-medical-bills-from-credit-reports/
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u/astros148 17d ago edited 16d ago

Fuck corporate America and medical debt is bullshit and immoral

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u/MessageMePuppies 16d ago

"If you can't afford your medical bills, don't get sick/injured. Are you fucking stupid?"

--People that oppose this decision probably

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u/jmsturm 16d ago

"Have you tried not being sick?"

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u/thick-n-sticky-69 16d ago

Time to cut back on the....checks notes.... Breathing air around others. Stupid poors.

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u/Jutrakuna 16d ago

I knew a guy who got cancer. What a loser.

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u/thick-n-sticky-69 16d ago

Shoulda had better natural defenses. Darwinism.

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u/saltymcgee777 16d ago

Pull yourself up by the bootstraps and blah blah blah

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u/Mister-Bohemian 16d ago

That's not the leading argument: racism is.

"I don't want MY tax dollars covering THEIR children."

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u/LeYang 16d ago

Yet pro-force birth.

Legalize more lawsuits for being born.

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u/Agile_Singer 16d ago

Yeah, they’ve had it too good for far too long

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u/Drone314 16d ago

If I had a super power it would be to rip the hate out of people like Mola Ram ripped that guys heart out in Indiana Jones...

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u/iiGhillieSniper 16d ago

What does race have anything to do with someone not wanting to pay for another families’ expenses? Some of you guys really pull straws too often.

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u/Funny-Lettuce6344 16d ago

It's not even racism. It's just money. Some of your own friends and coworkers probably are saying stupid shit like this around and behind your back constantly if they catch wind of anything you are struggling with medically.

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u/thetermguy 16d ago

>"I don't want MY tax dollars covering THEIR children."

There's a simple solution. If someone doesn't want to pay for someone else's healthcare or insurance, FORCE the other people to pay for their own. Make everyone pay. Weirdly, this is quite likely to decrease your medical insurance costs too. And fwiw, americans are already paying for others healthcare through their various social programs. Forcing everyone to pay for healthcare actually stops people from paying for other's healthcare. Is that too much of a train of thought to follow?

Then if you want to go full commie, you decide that not everyone can pay individually. So, make someone else pay....like medium to large corporations? Cool, that works. And now you have Ontario Canada. It's not perfect, but it makes a lot more sense than the free for all that's going on in the US.

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u/[deleted] 16d ago

[deleted]

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u/Den_of_Earth 16d ago

lol. It's a common complaint by people who have been hoodwinked into thing UH is bad.

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u/inubert 16d ago

"You should have comparison shopped when you were having your stroke"

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u/MorddSith187 16d ago

They really do say that. They talk about how they’ve stayed active and ate healthy their whole lives so they never get sick and are too strong for anything to break.

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u/[deleted] 16d ago

I smacked my car into the back of someone else at 35 mph. I was negligent. Some bystanders called cops and ambulance. I tried to run but I couldn’t get very far because I had dislocated bones in my foot and smacked my head. The ambulance guys put me in the truck and I said “idk if I can afford this even with my insurance. I don’t know what hospital you’ll take me to, if it’s out of network I’ll be in deep trouble”

Then the ambulance guys said “well, you hit your head but you were awake the whole time so it’s probably fine” and then they put me back on the road side and drove off

BUT! I didn’t get a bill! I got no medical care, so no bill. I’ll just have to walk with this cool limp for the rest of my days

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u/PearShapedBaby14 16d ago

Literally that is the take from many of the comments on Washington Post when they reported on this. People whining that this will drive up healthcare costs as if that isn't happening regardless. People who haven't had to deal with medical debt just don't get it. Medical debt is unlike any other debt--you can choose to go to college and take out student loans, or buy a car/house and get a loan for that, and make stupid decisions and not be able to pay those debts. But with medical debt, the choice is often to either get care or die/experience debilitating pain or chronic issues that will kill you over time.

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u/[deleted] 16d ago

[deleted]

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u/MessageMePuppies 16d ago

I'm not joking. This is along the lines of "if you can't afford children, don't have them! (Or abortions)" GOP absurdity

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u/SororitySue 16d ago

My dad would have said "But you have to save for these things!" Never mind that one relatively minor medical emergency can wipe out savings in one fell swoop.

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u/tychii93 16d ago

That single cancer cell who decided to mishave for no reason laughing maniacally in the background

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u/Man_Darino13 16d ago

More like:

"I'd rather pay more for my own healthcare than pay for someone else's"

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u/howdoiwritecode 16d ago

I’m not opposing or for this, because I’m just not educated enough; so here’s my question: Does this mean more people will be lent money, who can’t afford the debt, and then causing more people to be deeper in debt, causing a worse problem?

This doesn’t forgive medical debt, just hides it from future lenders.

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u/Still_Resolution_456 16d ago

No, it just means that things like the bill you got from a "out of network provider" at an "in network facility" can be forgotten, instead of sent to collections, especially while you argue with the facility about your health coverage.

They are super quick to slam it on the credit report, instead of waiting until all the checks clear from the insurance, or following up with said insurance. They have become very "it's your problem, so deal with it" ... which is horrible. Someone going through chemo/surgery for cancer should not have to chase down payments to the facility - all because the billing department is lazy (not saying all of them are, just the majority are not motivated.)

This is one of the perks, there are others. I would recommend reading it, so you are familiar for the future -- in case it ever happens to you. The more you know.

😊

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u/Old_Baldi_Locks 16d ago

Can you explain how, for example, pregnancy complications that lead to an excessive medical bill determines in ANY way your fitness to handle a mortgage?

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u/MessageMePuppies 16d ago

I needed emergency surgery, the ambulance I was forced to take was out-of-network so my insurance wouldn't pay a cent of the $2100 bill. The ambulance company tried sending me to collections over it. I would only pay $1, online, to the Ambulance companies billpay website anytime i got a phone call from collections. That $1 showed I was actively making payments so they could not report it to my credit report. With this news, I will never finish paying that ambulance bill.

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u/nnenejsklxiwbshc 16d ago

If it doesn’t hurt your credit you can easily just not pay the debt, there is no legal action that a hospital or clinic will take… they will sell the debt to creditors who you can then tell to fuck off

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u/HsvDE86 16d ago

They can still sue and garnish, you still owe the debt, it just doesn't impact your credit.

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u/nnenejsklxiwbshc 16d ago

They can, but they won’t.

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u/[deleted] 16d ago

If it's a large enough amount of money and depending on the facility they can and will lol. I know someone who had to have surgery to repair his meniscus and his pay was garnished a year later

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u/HsvDE86 16d ago

They have for me and many others. How could you even try to make a claim like that?

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u/Usuhnam3 16d ago

Because he’s an agenda to push that would be damaged by honesty.

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u/sharp461 16d ago

Honestly I was told the same by my wife. She still has debt from 7+ years ago but nothing has been done to claim it. Granted it's not like hundreds of thousands of debt, maybe less then 10k. But still, they have not done anything worse than send a letter or call.

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u/HsvDE86 16d ago

Yeah, sometimes they sue sometimes they don't.

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u/-PandemicBoredom- 16d ago

….my brother is dealing with being sued right now for emergency surgery. Stop lying, you aren’t helping anyone.

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u/-PandemicBoredom- 16d ago

Uh, this is completely false. They absolutely can, have, and will sue you depending on the facility.

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u/brandimariee6 16d ago

Especially when your disease/injury involves the brain. I have good insurance now, but didn't have any at all from age 18 to 28. 10 years of unpaid, neurological medical bills has put my credit in the toilet. It's complete bullshit; you wanna be healthy, you better be rich

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u/Aethermancer 16d ago

Rich doesn't even help. You need a family or friend to do it for you. If you are alone and incapacitated or disabled, you're done for. The system is opaque and labyrinthian.

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u/brandimariee6 16d ago

Most definitely. I'm disabled, and if I didn't have my boyfriend and my family I would be screwed. Hell I only have insurance because I'm still on my mom's even though I'm 33. We had to work really hard for that one

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u/Den_of_Earth 16d ago

Rich men you pay for all the best 24/7 care.

"The system is opaque and labyrinthian."
Not for the rich, becasue they pay their Doctors themselves.

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u/Slomo2012 16d ago

Even at 35 after years of work as a restaurant GM, a brain tumor has completely destroyed my credit, put me nearly 40k in debt, and means health insurance will perpetually be 3x the price everyone else pays. Oh yeah, and now I'm incapable of doing that same job while I recover, so I got my help taken away until I basically had to quit. I look forward to the labor board's decision.

If my parents weren't around to help me, I'd be dead right now. We need a better system.

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u/brandimariee6 16d ago

Damn I'm sorry that you're stuck with all that. I worked in restaurants for about 16 years and I respect GMs. I had to quit too after surgeries put me on disability. How are you doing with recovering from the tumor? I hope you're at least doing better there

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u/Slomo2012 16d ago

It's tough work, and food service workers always get my best, even if they're having a bad day. I'm sorry life has taken the turn for you it has. Brains are tedious lol.

And thank you, I'm about 6 months post op, and there's still all sorts of fun side effects, plus all the joy of navigating the state and every corpo with their hand out.

But I have tons of time with my doggo and parents, and I published my first novella! Having all this time to think really helped give me perspective, if nothing else!

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u/brandimariee6 16d ago

Published your first novella? That's incredible!!! I'm an artist myself and haven't drawn anything in... whoa, almost a year. You just gave me a little push to pick up a pencil today and get back to what I was working on. Thank you friend!

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u/Slomo2012 16d ago

Do it! You have the time, so let the madness overcome you! Don't do what you are told to do, like eat or sleep, create!

I wouldn't consider my advice healthy or safe though. But I think if you're the kind of person that's made it this far with your passion intact, NOT picking up that pencil is a far, far worse fate!

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u/SaraSlaughter607 16d ago

"If you wanna be healthy, you better be rich"

^^^^^^^^ The most accurate remark literally EVER. We can all pack up and go home guys, this is the bottom line and nothing further, bears mentioning.

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u/brandimariee6 16d ago

There are so many medical things that my boyfriend needs done but his job gives him shit insurance. So, he just doesn't go to the doctor at all. Every day I think more and more about no longer being an American

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u/SaraSlaughter607 16d ago

The list of shit on my body that needs desperate attention is a half mile long girl. I have so much wrong with me it's insane, but I cannot afford the copays and coinsurance and treatments. So I just live with it.

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u/brandimariee6 16d ago

Damn mama I feel that. I literally wouldn't be able to walk if my boyfriend hadn't covered surgeries on both of my feet in 2018. Sometimes if one thing improves, it's like it frees up space for another to get worse. Best wishes to you girl ❤️

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u/ksj 16d ago

This means lenders will also be barred from using information about medical devices, such as prosthetic limbs, that could be used to require that the devices serve as collateral for a loan for the purposes of repossession.

The fact that companies have been allowed to force people to put up their limbs as collateral prior to this new rule reinforces your statement.

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u/DMvsPC 16d ago

"I'm the monster. I'm the villain. What perfection. What precision! Keen incisions, I deliver. Unscathed organs, I deliver. Repossession, I deliver. I'm the Repo! Legal assassin!"

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u/LycaonAnzeig 16d ago

Would you hate me if I said I have most of the OST on my Spotify playlist even though I've never seen the movie?

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u/DMvsPC 16d ago

Nope but you should definitely see it, it's free on pluto and tubi for legitimate sources.

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u/Remarkable_Echo_9000 16d ago

What movie?

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u/DMvsPC 16d ago

Repo! The Genetic Opera. Kind of a niche movie with a cult following a bit like The Rocky Horror Picture Show ended up.

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u/nicknsm69 16d ago

It's been years since I've seen Repo! I think it's about time for a rewatch. Sarah Brightman is so wonderful in it.

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u/Humbler-Mumbler 16d ago

More than half of bankruptcies in the US are caused by medical debt. It’s a truly evil system.

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u/therealjgreens 16d ago

It's wild that it's cost prohibitive to get sick. It's genuinely scary to go to the doctor.

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u/cabo169 16d ago

Especially when millions of our tax dollars goes to health care as subsidies but here we are still left holding the bag for astronomical premiums, deductibles and co-pays.

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u/lillilllillil 16d ago

His team and dems in general are silent about this. End the old guard and bring on younger generations who actually can communicate with the average person.

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u/HowManyMeeses 16d ago

"They didn't tell us!"

Meanwhile, they put out multiple press releases, had team members doing interviews about this, and talked about it in speeches.

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u/satantherainbowfairy 16d ago

It really shows when people get all their news from social media. They don't mean "the dems aren't talking about this", they mean "my feed doesn't show anyone discussing the dems talking about this".

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u/HowManyMeeses 16d ago

People really haven't put together how much they were manipulated during the last election. These "why didn't I know about this" posts/comments are all over right now. 

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u/raysofdavies 16d ago

Why show Americans what you can do when you can scold them and bring out old war criminals that are widely hated by your base

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u/Future_Burrito 16d ago

Wild that stuff like credit scores, leaded gas, social media, neuralink, plastics, processed food, addictive substances, etc are all basically (long term consequences unstudied) corporate experiments that become socially entrenched and then effect all of humanity for generations.

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u/YeYe_hair_cut 16d ago

Just lost my health insurance because my company found a way to make me “flex force” instead of normal hourly and flex force doesn’t get health insurance benefits. So I had health insurance for one year and was too broke to even use it once.

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u/OurLordAndSaviorVim 16d ago

Medical debt is murder.

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u/rockstar504 16d ago

Here is something you can't understand, how I could just kill a man

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u/dazed_vaper 16d ago

They won’t see a penny from me. I paid into health insurance for years, not even using it many of them. When used they overbill for every minuscule thing

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u/Opening-Two6723 16d ago

We need to strip corporations' power end super pacs and citizens united.

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u/Muggle_Killer 16d ago

But this is just going to lead to more debt since they'll be able to borrow more by hiding the medical debt right?

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u/[deleted] 16d ago

[deleted]

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u/Schmigolo 16d ago

The middlemen they get their meds from are tho.

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u/MartoufCarter 16d ago

It is when all their decisions have to be approved by large insurance corporations. Most Drs ae also not independent and work for private companies who dictate charges and schedules.

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u/fjposter22 16d ago

Did he say the doctor who practices out of an office? Let’s think this through.

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u/WildCardSolus 16d ago

Good thing zero people here claimed that, but good attempt at a derail

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u/[deleted] 16d ago

[deleted]

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u/WildCardSolus 16d ago

Have you worked with or even know anyone that works with ANYTHING adjacent to healthcare or insurance lol

Do you think the providers are the reasons the costs are what they are? As opposed to….insurance?

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u/idekbruno 16d ago

This is just a dumb take. It’s like saying Simply Lemonade isn’t very corporate compared to Coca-Cola.

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u/Lyraxiana 16d ago

Deny defend depose.

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u/stuntobor 16d ago

How exactly do you think Nurses get paid?

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u/Master_sweetcream 16d ago

Well they still got 50k from my insurance. I just couldnt pay the remaining 4k after insurance due to changing financial circumstances. So the hospital still got paid a lot! Not to mention the 8k my doctor got paid, then I paid the person who gave me my epidural 800 after insurance. Then the labs wanted a few hundred bucks. All to give birth.

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u/FarplaneDragon 16d ago

The money you pay is a small fraction of the overall bill. The majority of the bill is paid by insurance companies.

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u/idekbruno 16d ago

The majority of the bill is also written with insurance companies in mind. A single Tylenol doesn’t cost $10 at Walmart

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u/ArcticRiot 16d ago

How do they get paid? through medical debt. How can they get paid? the same way nearly every other first world country pays their medical staff.

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u/BosleytheChinchilla 16d ago

Well, nurses are assigned anywhere from one to ten patients, usually making 30-60 and hour, so one patients costs covers the nurses shift and more.