very much. >> Thank you to letters keep
coming to you from the hospital about the balance you owe.
>> Well, this week, the Biden administration announced unpaid
medical bills will no longer appear on credit reports
removing $49 billion in such debt from the credit reports of
15 million Americans. And nearly 400,000 people in Wisconsin.
Medical debt lowers credit ratings, preventing people from
getting loans, renting apartments, even getting a job
here with his reaction, attorney Bobby Peterson from ABC for
health, a nonprofit public interest law firm in Madison,
and Bobby, thanks for being her. >> Thanks for inviting me.
Appreciate it. >> So when you heard about this,
what was your reaction? >> I thought it was great. I
think, you know, getting medical debt off of people's credit
report is a real positive move in the right direction. You
know, a lot of times people don't choose to get ill or
sickness or working with a family member that has big bills
because of illness or sickness. And to have that compromise your
credit report. I think, is just in the wrong direction. It's not
a good indicator of credit worthiness. Oftentimes. So
removing it, I think is definitely a move in the right
direction. >> You call the current system
an electronic debtor's prison. How so?
>> Well, if you think about it, you know, in the old days they
would you didn't pay your bills. They locked you up and threw you
in prison until you paid your bills. Today it's a situation
where you have electronic handcuffs on and electronic
debtor's prison. It's your credit score. If your credit
score doesn't meet the certain metrics that people want, you
can't get a car apartment. You can't get a job sometimes. And
so it really is an electronic debtor's prison that traps
people sometimes in poverty, by eliminating medical debt from
this equation, I think it can lift a lot more people out of
this. Electronic debtor's prison. And give them an
opportunity to move forward to get credit. Apartment jobs,
things like that. I mean, the estimates are that people's by
removing medical debt from their credit scores, could raise their
credit score by up to 20 points. >> So what incentive, though,
remains for getting people to pay their medical bills?
>> Well, I mean, I think that, you know. Part of the issue with
medical bills is that we have such a confusing, complicated
system that trying to understand it and figure it out at the
front end is extraordinarily difficult for most. Consumers,
particularly if you're sick, if you're helping a family member
trying to work through that, it's impossible. What a lot of
people don't understand is that those decision makers are saying
no to coverage. That usually results in bills that aren't
paid. And so when those bills don't get paid, it's a cost for
all of us. We've talked before about, you know, the hospital
association does an annual uncompensated care report in
Wisconsin that uncompensated care report was about $1.4
billion in 2023. That's money that just isn't getting paid. We
also know that that medical billing and medical debt,
sometimes there's so many mistakes made in the process
that people are billed inappropriately. So again, it's
not a good measure sometimes of someone's credit worthiness
because errors mistakes our solution to this is to really
work at the front end of the process, try and help people
avoid that medical debt before it becomes a bill. Streamline
the system and simplify the system a little bit more in your
experience with clients, how does the debt mostly accrue and
mostly for whom? For a lot of people that have ongoing chronic
medical conditions, people that have children with special
health care needs, adults with disabilities because they are
high users of the system, they end up getting in those more
encounters result in more bills and medical debt. And, you know,
it's not just hospital debt. It's prescription drug debt.
It's going to physicians. It's going to physician groups,
dental bills, all of that accumulates. And it just becomes
a lot for people to try and deal with and try and work through.
>> So this is a Biden rule. How likely might it be that it's
overturned by the incoming administration? I'd say there's
a good chance that it might get overturned.
that's going on right now is filed a day after the rule was
published, and the rule doesn't take effect until 60 days after
publication. So the rule was published on Monday, 60 days
later. The rule will take effec. A lawsuit was filed in Texas. So
we've seen this before. So a little bit of venue shopping
there to find a judge that might be likely to overturn it. We
don't know that that's going to happen, but we suspect that was
part of the strategy. We also know that the congressional
Review Act gives Congress an opportunity to review these
administrative rules within 60 days to be able to overturn
them. It has to be approved by the House. The Senate, and
signed by the president. There's very narrow margins. So, you
know, medical debt is one of those issues that does have some
bipartisan appeal. So maybe it'll make it through. But I'm
not I'm not super optimistic about that.
>> All right. Well Bobby Peterson, thanks very much.