medical debt
Credit bureau CEOs face tough questions at Senate hearing; Democrats push to remove medical debt
WASHINGTON — U.S. Senators grilled the executives of three major credit reporting bureaus last Thursday on whether their practices are transparent and fair to consumers, with Democrats frequently pressing the CEOs to remove medical debt from the reports. Ohio Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown, chair of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, said […]
Your money or your life: Ohioan on $50K per week cancer drug fears leaving behind huge medical debt
This story was originally published by Kaiser Health News. After several rounds of treatment for a rare eye cancer — weekly drug infusions that could cost nearly $50,000 each — Paul Davis learned Medicare had abruptly stopped paying the bills. That left Davis, a retired physician in Findlay, Ohio, contemplating a horrific choice: risk saddling […]
Two communities find a cure for medical debt: pandemic stimulus funds
Local governments in Ohio and Illinois are using American Rescue Plan Act money to relieve residents struggling with medical debt by partnering with an organization that buys debt and wipes the slate clean for debtors. It’s a strategy advocates say could be duplicated across the country to help erase a multibillion-dollar problem. On Nov. 9, […]
Medical debt sunk her credit. New changes from the credit reporting agencies won’t help.
This story was originally published in Kaiser Health News. CHARLOTTE, N.C. — After a year of chemo and radiation, doctors told Penelope “Penny” Wingard in 2014 that her breast cancer was in remission. She’d been praying for this good news. But it also meant she no longer qualified for a program in her state that […]
In America, cancer patients endure debt on top of disease
This story was originally published by Kaiser Health News. RAPID CITY, S.D. ― Jeni Rae Peters would make promises to herself as she lay awake nights after being diagnosed with breast cancer two years ago. “My kids had lost so much,” said Peters, a single mom and mental health counselor. She had just adopted two […]
100 million people in America are saddled with health care debt
This story was originally published by Kaiser Health News. Elizabeth Woodruff drained her retirement account and took on three jobs after she and her husband were sued for nearly $10,000 by the New York hospital where his infected leg was amputated. Ariane Buck, a young father in Arizona who sells health insurance, couldn’t make an […]
100 million people in America are saddled with health care debt
Elizabeth Woodruff drained her retirement account and took on three jobs after she and her husband were sued for nearly $10,000 by the New York hospital where his infected leg was amputated. Ariane Buck, a young father in Arizona who sells health insurance, couldn’t make an appointment with his doctor for a dangerous intestinal infection […]