H.R. 3421 Medical Debt Relief Act of 2009

[fused]

Hard to say

[Anonymous]

Please also encourage the Co-Sponsors of this bill;

COSPONSORS(18), ALPHABETICAL 

Rep Baca, Joe [CA-43] - 7/30/2009 
Rep Carson, Andre [IN-7] - 7/31/2009 
Rep Ellison, Keith [MN-5] - 7/30/2009 
Rep Fudge, Marcia L. [OH-11] - 7/30/2009 
Rep Green, Al [TX-9] - 7/30/2009 
Rep Gutierrez, Luis V. [IL-4] - 7/30/2009 
Rep Hare, Phil [IL-17] - 7/31/2009 
Rep Hastings, Alcee L. [FL-23] - 7/30/2009 
Rep Hinchey, Maurice D. [NY-22] - 7/30/2009 
Rep Jackson, Jesse L., Jr. [IL-2] - 7/31/2009 
Rep Kaptur, Marcy [OH-9] - 7/30/2009 
Rep Matsui, Doris O. [CA-5] - 7/31/2009 
Rep Minnick, Walter [ID-1] - 7/30/2009 
Rep Moore, Gwen [WI-4] - 7/30/2009 
Rep Perriello, Thomas S.P. [VA-5] - 7/30/2009 
Rep Schakowsky, Janice D. [IL-9] - 7/30/2009 
Rep Speier, Jackie [CA-12] - 7/30/2009 
Rep Titus, Dina [NV-3] - 7/31/2009

 

 

---

Medical Debt Relief Act of 2009 (Introduced in House)

HR 3421 IH

111th CONGRESS1st SessionH. R. 3421

To exclude from consumer credit reports medical debt that has been in collection and has been fully paid or settled, and for other purposes.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVESJuly 30, 2009

Ms. KILROY (for herself, Mr. GUTIERREZ, Mr. MINNICK, Mr. PERRIELLO, Ms. SCHAKOWSKY, Mr. BACA, Ms. SPEIER, Mr. HINCHEY, Mr. ELLISON, Ms. MOORE of Wisconsin, Ms. FUDGE, Ms. KAPTUR, Mr. HASTINGS of Florida, and Mr. AL GREEN of Texas) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Financial Services

---

A BILL

To exclude from consumer credit reports medical debt that has been in collection and has been fully paid or settled, and for other purposes.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the `Medical Debt Relief Act of 2009'.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND PURPOSE.

(a) Findings- The Congress finds the following:

•  
  (1) Medical debt is unique because, unlike consumer debt, Americans don't get to choose when accidents happen or when their genetic traits will catch up to their health profile.

•  
  (2) Medical debt collection issues affect both insured and uninsured consumers.

•  
  (3) According to credit evaluators, medical debt collections are more likely to be in dispute, inconsistently reported, and of questionable value in predicting future payment performance because it is atypical and nonpredictive.

•  
  (4) Nevertheless, medical debt that has been completely paid off or settled can significantly damage a consumer's credit score for years.

•  
  (5) As a result, consumers can be denied credit or pay higher interest rates when buying a home or obtaining a credit card.

•  
  (6) Healthcare providers are increasingly turning to outside collection agencies to help secure payment from patients and this comes at the expense of the consumer because medical debts are not typically reported unless they become assigned to collections.

•  
  (7) In fact, medical bills account for more than half of all non-credit related collection actions reported to consumer credit reporting agencies.

•  
  (8) The issue of medical debt affects millions.

•  
  (9) According to the Commonwealth Fund, medical bill problems or accrued medical debt affects roughly 72,000,000 working-age adults in American.

•  
  (10) For 2007, 28,000,000 working-age American adults were contacted by a collection agency for unpaid medical bills.

(b) Purpose- It is the purpose of this Act to exclude from consumer credit reports medical debt that had been characterized as debt in collection for credit reporting purposes and has been fully paid or settled.

SEC. 3. AMENDMENTS TO FAIR CREDIT REPORTING ACT.

(a) Medical Debt Defined- Section 603 of the Fair Credit Reporting Act (15 U.S.C. 1681a) is amended by adding at the end the following new paragraph:

`(y) Medical Debt- The term `medical debt' means a debt described in section 604(g)(1)(C).'

(b) Exclusion for Paid or Settled Medical Debt- Section 605(a) of the Fair Credit Reporting Act (15 U.S.C. 1681c(a)) is amended by adding at the end the following new paragraph:

•  
  `(7) Any information related to a fully paid or settled medical debt that had been characterized as debt in collection for credit reporting purposes, which, from the date of payment or settlement, antedates the report by more than 30 calendar days.'.

[Anonymous]

If you really want to see this gain momentum, you MUST contact your House Representative.  It is VERY easy to do so via US Mail or Email.  

You can find their contact information here;  https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml  

I amincluding a Sample Letter I wrote to my rep, please feel free to copy it or change it for your use:

_________________________________________________________________________________________

The Honorable _____________
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, D.C. 20515

Dear Representative __________,

I am writing to ask that you please support and co-sponsor the bill H.R.  3421; the Medical Debt Relief Act of 2009. I sincerely believe that this bill will greatly benefit millions of Americans and their families who have endured financial hardship due to medical conditions that are beyond their control.   As I am sure you are aware, medical collection accounts affect an estimated seventy-two million working Americans adversely. It is estimated that a high percentage of these accounts are erroneous in nature, damaging the credit standing of those working Americans who rely on affordable credit to provide housing, transportation and other necessities to their families.   Furthermore, honest, hard-working Americans who pay legitimate medical collection accounts in full are still unfairly and heavily penalized for many years after bringing their accounts into good standing.   I believe that H.R. 3421, as written, will provide an effective, fair and timely remedy to resolve these issues that are impacting working families.

As your constituent, I implore you to support H.R. 3421. Americans have long needed this measure of protective legislation, but current circumstances make this issue especially urgent.

Sincerely,

Full Name
Full Address

[Tons_of_Debt]

Fabulous! I know I used the old HIPAA process to have mine deleted, but this would make it a snap!

[Thunderseven]

Have there been any updates on this subject?

[Anonymous]

none yet..   keep writing in to your rep!

[Anonymous]

WoW!  This would be wonderful.  DH's last collection is a paid medical collection.  I would love it if this bill could wipe it off his report. 

Thanks to FPP for making it so easy to contact my congressman!  My email has been sent.

[Anonymous]

Good News

I sent off an email to my Congressman about where he stood on this bill and today he replied via an email that he is supporting this bill.

Hopefully more will sign on and then we can get it signed into law

[Anonymous]

Having to make this law is what the goal of this thread is, but i have to wonder,  couldn't FICO voluntarily make a change to the formula to make a similar effect to the score?   It would be a big step towards "the right thing"..   Wonder how we could potentially get them on-board?

[valley_man0505]

I am currently going through a mess with a CA that is refusing to do a PFD and the OC says they can no longer accept payment.  I am going to to try the HIPAA process anyway and hope for the best, but it sure would be nice if this would become a law ASAP.  In my case, the stupid bills aren't even mine--they are from my ex-wife while we were still married.  It is not even fair for people to be punished for their own medical surprises much less to be punished for someone else's medical surprises!