Earlier this month, Oregon’s governor signed a bill into law that bans medical debt from impacting credit scores.  

Oregon joins a list of fourteen states that have banned medical debt from credit scores, including California, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, and Washington. 

Community Catalyst’s partners at Oregon Consumer Justice championed this legislation, which will provide relief to the nearly one in three Oregonians who went into medical debt in the past two years. 

As the largest cuts to health care coverage in history loom, 16 million people will lose their health care and medical debt will skyrocket, placing even more strain on struggling families and individuals.  

Polling from Community Catalyst and HIT Strategies found that 75% of voters across party lines support removing medical debt from credit reports, demonstrating the popularity of policies that protect people from crushing debt and improve their trajectory for economic stability.  

These state actions come off the heels of years of advocacy from Community Catalyst and more than 70 local, state and national partners urging for more aggressive action to address the medical debt crisis in the U.S. 

“This is a major win for residents of Oregon and other states that have taken action to provide relief for the hundreds of thousands of people who have unfairly had their credit impacted simply because they got sick. No one should have to worry that medical debt will prevent them from buying a house or securing an auto loan because of its impact on their credit,” said Mona Shah, Senior Director of Policy & Strategy at Community Catalyst.  

“We celebrate the progress that’s possible when we put people over profit and center impacted communities in policy decisions. Now is the time to continue fighting for these protections in states so that no one is forced to make the impossible choice between getting essential care and going into debt.”  

States like Maine and Virginia have also recently taken action to prevent aggressive medical debt collection practices that can harm the health and economic stability of individuals and families. Earlier this month, Maine passed the Fair Credit Reporting Act, which will protect Mainers from the harms of medical debt by prohibiting medical debt collectors from reporting medical debt to consumer reporting agencies. Virginia’s Medical Debt Protection Act, which was signed into law this month, prohibits medical debt collectors from foreclosing on homes and limits wage garnishment, protecting Virginians from facing these cruel practices.  

While the Trump administration pushes to dismantle protections from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), these state actions provide relief to struggling families and to all people who have been punished just for seeking essential and needed care.  

We’re in a critical moment – Republicans in Congress are working to pass the largest cuts to health care in history, terminating coverage for millions, raising costs for everyone, and pushing even more families into crushing medical debt. Community Catalyst, alongside partners, will continue to push for policies at the state and federal level that protect communities from medical debt and put people over profit.  

To speak with Mona or another expert at Community Catalyst, please contact Jack Cardinal at jcardinal@communitycatalyst.org.  

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