FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: March 12, 2025

CONTACT: Jack Cardinal, jcardinal@communitycatalyst.org 

WASHINGTON, D.C. — In response to Republican efforts in the House and Senate to rescind the Biden-Harris administration’s rule preventing medical debt from impacting credit scores, Mona Shah, Senior Director of Policy and Strategy at Community Catalyst, issued the following statement:

“No one should have to choose between getting essential care and financial ruin. Yet Republicans are trying to block a policy that prevents medical debt from destroying people’s financial futures—just to protect debt collectors’ profits. No one plans on taking on medical debt. Medical debt is not predictive of a person’s ability to pay back loans and medical bills are often riddled with errors.

“This rule was a lifeline for millions. For some, it’s the difference between making ends meet and losing everything. Let’s be clear: rescinding it is cruel, unconscionable and shameful. This is a direct attack on people struggling with the rising cost of health care, and it breaks campaign promises to ease economic hardship.”

Medical Debt Rule Has Overwhelming Public Support

Polling by HIT Strategies found that 75% of voters—including majorities across party lines—support removing medical debt from credit scores and a group of 277 health care, consumer, civil rights, labor, legal services, and community organizations and academics have written Congress in support of the rule.

The rule is especially critical for people like Samuel in Ohio, who was billed $25,000 for emergency surgery due to a hospital error. Though the bill should have been $6,000, no one discussed payment assistance options with him. Unable to keep up, his debt was sent to collections, tanking his credit score. Stories like Samuel’s are far too common.

The Biden-Harris Rule Was a Direct Response to Public Demand

This historic rule came after a multi-year campaign led by Community Catalyst, including a Medical Debt Day of Action and nearly 11,000 petition signatures urging policymakers to act.

When medical debt lowers your credit score, it can prevent you from getting a loan to buy a house, a car, or to start a new business. Indeed, it is estimated that this rule would lead to 22,000 new affordable mortgages each year.

Medical debt is also unpredictable—no one chooses to get hurt or sick. Significantly, individuals who have just given birth hold more medical debt and 47% of cancer patients and survivors reported medical debt related to their cancer, and nearly half of those with medical debt saw their credit score decrease.

According to a 2024 Commonwealth Fund report:

  • 40% of people with medical debt drained their savings to pay bills.
  • More than a third saw their credit score drop due to medical debt.
  • One in three were forced to skip food, rent, or other necessities in order to pay off medical bills.

Medical Debt Hits Black and Latinx Communities Hardest

More than 100 million people in the U.S. carry medical debt—but systemic racism and economic injustice make the burden unequal. Black, Latinx, and low-income communities bear the greatest health and financial harm. Community Catalyst polling found that medical debt is seen as a top cost-of-living issue across party lines.

Over the last year, Community Catalyst has worked with dozens of national and state partners, as well as impacted community members, to advocate for bold federal action, including eliminating medical debt from credit scores. We have met with members of Congress, the White House, HHS, Treasury, CFPB, and the National Economic Council to push for these reforms.

What’s Next: The Fight to Protect Hard-Won Progress

Community Catalyst will not back down. We will continue mobilizing partners, impacted people, and policymakers to fight this rollback and protect families from financial devastation. We urge Congress to listen to the majority of their constituents—not the debt collection and credit industries and their lobbyists. Learn more about the campaign to end medical debt and how to share your story, take action, and push back against this attack.

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About Community Catalyst:

Community Catalyst is a national organization dedicated to building the power of people to create a health system rooted in race equity and health justice, and a society where health is a right for all. We’re an experienced, trusted partner to organizations across the country, a change agent to policymakers at the local, state, and national level, and both an adversary and a collaborator to health systems in our efforts to advance health justice. We partner with local, state and national organizations and leaders to leverage and build power so that people are at the center of important decisions about health and health care, whether they are made by health care executives, in state houses, or on Capitol Hill. Together with partners, we’re building a powerful, united movement with a shared vision of and strategy for a health system accountable to all people. Learn more at communitycatalyst.org.