Bernie Sanders and Ro Khanna reveal bill to ‘cancel all medical debt’

[Bleach Blonde Bad Built Butch Bodies for Biden]

The bill, introduced with Oregon senator Jeff Merkley and Michigan congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, would create a federal grant program to cancel all existing patient debt and amend the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act to block creditors from collecting past medical bills. The legislation would also update billing requirements for medical providers and alter the Consumer Credit Reporting Act to prevent credit agencies from reporting information related to unpaid medical bills, alleviating the risk of such debt damaging patients’ credit histories.

Sanders and Khanna described the legislation as vital for many families’ financial security, as millions of Americans struggle with the burden of medical debt. According to a 2022 investigation by NPR and KFF Health News, more than 100 million Americans, including 41% of adults, hold some kind of healthcare debt. A KFF analysis of the Census Bureau’s survey of income and program participation suggests that Americans owe at least $220bn in medical debt.

[...]

Sanders and Khanna’s bill may face a difficult journey to passage in the Republican-controlled House, but polls suggest that cancelation of medical debt attracts widespread support from members of both parties. According to a YouGov survey conducted in 2022, 66% of Americans – including 56% of Republicans and 85% of Democrats – support some relief to those with medical debt.

[...]

Khanna believes that the medical debt cancelation bill could mark one important step in re-energizing young people ahead of November. The Harvard-IOP poll showed that 59% of young voters under 30 named healthcare as one of their top two priorities, only behind inflation.

The Guardian

2/3 of Americans and 56% of Republicans support this, but of course it will go nowhere because there's no reason for insurance companies or debt collectors to lobby for it.

[GP270watch]

It would be better to cancel all private health insurance companies. They're the source of medical debt.

[Lief 🗽]

Democratic politicians should stop suggesting things that would increase inflation IMO.

Same with Biden increasing car tariffs. Can we try not to lose please?

[jojoju1998]

It would be better to cancel all private health insurance companies. They're the source of medical debt.

My economics/political science professor predicted that the private health insurance companies are going to collapse in the distant future and the government will be forced to buy it out, Medicare for all defacto.

[Bleach Blonde Bad Built Butch Bodies for Biden]

It would be better to cancel all private health insurance companies. They're the source of medical debt.

My economics/political science professor predicted that the private health insurance companies are going to collapse in the distant future and the government will be forced to buy it out, Medicare for all defacto.

Let's hope. My guess is it'll be more expensive then, but Americans are used to learning things the hard way.

[wnwnwn]

Democratic politicians should stop suggesting things that would increase inflation IMO.

Same with Biden increasing car tariffs. Can we try not to lose please?

He can't afford to lose UAW

The economic left need to keep hardline positions on discussion, to make moderate reforms seem sensible.

[Amenhotep Bakari-Sellers]

I don't have medical debt so it won't matter

[Rand]

Good. The bill from my 17 penis enlargments is almost as big as my penis.

[MarkD]

Eventually they're going to pass legislation to cancel all debt from vacationing and all debt from the purchase of Broadway theater tickets.

[Vice President Christian Man]

I might be fine with one that covers debt from life-threatening/emergency visits, but not from voluntary operations.

[Open Source Intelligence]

This combined with the student debt forgiveness are markers that demonstrate real economy health of the country that don't show up in stats.

Next up, let's forgive home mortgage debt!

[Bleach Blonde Bad Built Butch Bodies for Biden]

Eventually they're going to pass legislation to cancel all debt from vacationing and all debt from the purchase of Broadway theater tickets.

That'd be sweet. The Book of Mormon is playing at Chrysler Hall today but I can't see it because I'm broke.

(This is an idiotic comparison and I'm sure you know that, but I'm happy to play along.)

[Pro-Israel, anti-Bibi]

Next up, let's forgive home mortgage debt!

As I said when GeneralMacArthur made this crap analogy a couple of weeks ago, you can easily get your mortgage forgiven. Hand the house back over to the bank.
But people don't do it because they're basically guaranteed to have a valuable asset at the end of their financial obligation.
Just reveals a fundamental misunderstanding in right wingers' minds on how debt and securities work - and of course the vaunted "f*** you, I got mine" outlook.

[Badger]

Eventually they're going to pass legislation to cancel all debt from vacationing and all debt from the purchase of Broadway theater tickets.

To the ignorant posts thread, tally ho!

[Open Source Intelligence]

Next up, let's forgive home mortgage debt!

As I said when GeneralMacArthur made this crap analogy a couple of weeks ago, you can easily get your mortgage forgiven. Hand the house back over to the bank.
But people don't do it because they're basically guaranteed to have a valuable asset at the end of their financial obligation.

A college degree is supposed to be a valuable asset at the end of a person's financial obligation. It's just not one you can sell.

Student debt forgiveness is bullsh*t. If you want to do it, the programs at those universities whose graduates required it should be curtailed via dropping all future federal government funding to those programs due to failure of that college of the university and its degree to give those graduates worth comparable to cost to where they could pay back the debt. If that was threatened, the calculus of who is accepted into said programs at these universities would change immediately. No such analysis was carried out, because of course not.

My mom ran the finances for a public hospital for 30 years and she told me several times Medicare paid 19 cents to the dollar. That's how out of whack published costs are compared to what the government pays. So who pays the remaining 81 cents? You do when you get your bill. Meanwhile the markets gets bastardized by requiring providers in some markets to cover everyone which means they govern as a soft guaranteed monopoly in their area and in so doing so gouge everyone else that can afford to pay. https://johnhcochrane.blogspot.com/2018/06/cross-subsidies.html

[Pro-Israel, anti-Bibi]

Next up, let's forgive home mortgage debt!

As I said when GeneralMacArthur made this crap analogy a couple of weeks ago, you can easily get your mortgage forgiven. Hand the house back over to the bank.
But people don't do it because they're basically guaranteed to have a valuable asset at the end of their financial obligation.

A college degree is supposed to be a valuable asset at the end of a person's financial obligation. It's just not one you can sell.

Student debt forgiveness is bullsh*t. If you want to do it, the programs at those universities whose graduates required it should be curtailed via dropping all future federal government funding to those programs due to failure of that college of the university and its degree to give those graduates worth comparable to cost to where they could pay back the debt. If that was threatened, the calculus of who is accepted into said programs at these universities would change immediately. No such analysis was carried out, because of course not.

My mom ran the finances for a public hospital for 30 years and she told me several times Medicare paid 19 cents to the dollar. That's how out of whack published costs are compared to what the government pays. So who pays the remaining 81 cents? You do when you get your bill. Meanwhile the markets gets bastardized by requiring providers in some markets to cover everyone which means they govern as a soft guaranteed monopoly in their area and in so doing so gouge everyone else that can afford to pay. https://johnhcochrane.blogspot.com/2018/06/cross-subsidies.html

I agree that the costs are out of control. That doesn't mean it's right to saddle 17 year olds with decades of debt for pursuing educations their parents paid for working part time at Wendy's. It is just not at all equivalent to a mortgage or any other kind of debt.

As for medical costs, they are made up. You are mad at Medicare recipients because you pay $85 for two ibuprofen tablets. Be mad at the "health" industry helping themselves to record profits on the backs of the worst and most inefficient system of medical care in the developed world.

[GoTfan]

Next up, let's forgive home mortgage debt!

As I said when GeneralMacArthur made this crap analogy a couple of weeks ago, you can easily get your mortgage forgiven. Hand the house back over to the bank.
But people don't do it because they're basically guaranteed to have a valuable asset at the end of their financial obligation.

A college degree is supposed to be a valuable asset at the end of a person's financial obligation. It's just not one you can sell.

Student debt forgiveness is bullsh*t. If you want to do it, the programs at those universities whose graduates required it should be curtailed via dropping all future federal government funding to those programs due to failure of that college of the university and its degree to give those graduates worth comparable to cost to where they could pay back the debt. If that was threatened, the calculus of who is accepted into said programs at these universities would change immediately. No such analysis was carried out, because of course not.

My mom ran the finances for a public hospital for 30 years and she told me several times Medicare paid 19 cents to the dollar. That's how out of whack published costs are compared to what the government pays. So who pays the remaining 81 cents? You do when you get your bill. Meanwhile the markets gets bastardized by requiring providers in some markets to cover everyone which means they govern as a soft guaranteed monopoly in their area and in so doing so gouge everyone else that can afford to pay. https://johnhcochrane.blogspot.com/2018/06/cross-subsidies.html

I agree that the costs are out of control. That doesn't mean it's right to saddle 17 year olds with decades of debt for pursuing educations their parents paid for working part time at Wendy's. It is just not at all equivalent to a mortgage or any other kind of debt.

As for medical costs, they are made up. You are mad at Medicare recipients because you pay $85 for two ibuprofen tablets. Be mad at the "health" industry helping themselves to record profits on the backs of the worst and most inefficient system of medical care in the developed world.

Ban advertising and marketing to doctors. That should solve a few problems.

[Indy Texas]

The absurd thing about medical debt is it often goes something like:

(1) You get an in-office procedure that your insurance would pay like $250 for.

(2) Your insurance doesn't cover it because the doctor you saw isn't in network even though the receptionist said they were when you scheduled the appointment.

(3) You get a bill from the doctor for the list price of $1,000.

(4) You don't pay it because you can't afford to and are in a Kafka-esque back-and-forth with your insurance plan trying to figure out why they didn't pay for it.

(5) Eventually the doctor's office sells the debt to a collections agency for like $10.

(6) The collections agency harasses you in hopes that you will be stupid enough or easily intimidated enough into paying the full $1,000 owed.

[President Johnson]

It's dispicable medical debt exists to begin with.

[GP270watch]

The absurd thing about medical debt is it often goes something like:

(1) You get an in-office procedure that your insurance would pay like $250 for.

(2) Your insurance doesn't cover it because the doctor you saw isn't in network even though the receptionist said they were when you scheduled the appointment.

(3) You get a bill from the doctor for the list price of $1,000.

(4) You don't pay it because you can't afford to and are in a Kafka-esque back-and-forth with your insurance plan trying to figure out why they didn't pay for it.

(5) Eventually the doctor's office sells the debt to a collections agency for like $10.

(6) The collections agency harasses you in hopes that you will be stupid enough or easily intimidated enough into paying the full $1,000 owed.

  Except in reality if you had to pay the doctor directly with cash it would be $100-$175. These days insurance bills more than paying a medical provider or dentist directly save for a few routine maintenance/checkup things.

[Pro-Israel, anti-Bibi]

The absurd thing about medical debt is it often goes something like:

(1) You get an in-office procedure that your insurance would pay like $250 for.

(2) Your insurance doesn't cover it because the doctor you saw isn't in network even though the receptionist said they were when you scheduled the appointment.

(3) You get a bill from the doctor for the list price of $1,000.

(4) You don't pay it because you can't afford to and are in a Kafka-esque back-and-forth with your insurance plan trying to figure out why they didn't pay for it.

(5) Eventually the doctor's office sells the debt to a collections agency for like $10.

(6) The collections agency harasses you in hopes that you will be stupid enough or easily intimidated enough into paying the full $1,000 owed.

  Except in reality if you had to pay the doctor directly with cash it would be $100-$175. These days insurance bills more than paying a medical provider or dentist directly save for a few routine maintenance/checkup things.

All the more reason to just discard insurance entirely.

[Indy Texas]

The absurd thing about medical debt is it often goes something like:

(1) You get an in-office procedure that your insurance would pay like $250 for.

(2) Your insurance doesn't cover it because the doctor you saw isn't in network even though the receptionist said they were when you scheduled the appointment.

(3) You get a bill from the doctor for the list price of $1,000.

(4) You don't pay it because you can't afford to and are in a Kafka-esque back-and-forth with your insurance plan trying to figure out why they didn't pay for it.

(5) Eventually the doctor's office sells the debt to a collections agency for like $10.

(6) The collections agency harasses you in hopes that you will be stupid enough or easily intimidated enough into paying the full $1,000 owed.

  Except in reality if you had to pay the doctor directly with cash it would be $100-$175. These days insurance bills more than paying a medical provider or dentist directly save for a few routine maintenance/checkup things.

Then why doesn't the doctor just ask that person to pay $175 instead of getting $10 from a collections agency?