Americans' medical debt can stay in credit reports, judge rules. What does that mean?
www.npr.org
I fear this may be the right decision. The opinion says the FCRA allows medical debt to be reported as part of a credit report as long as it’s not being used for employment purposes and doesn’t disclose personal medical information (services received, name of provider, etc). The opinion essentially says that the rule CFPB issued is at odds with the law passed by Congress. It’s worth noting that the big 3 credit bureaus have reduced the impact of medical debt on the credit score they report
Best thing we can do rn is push for it at the state level. 15 states prohibit CRAs from reporting medical debt: https://consumerfed.org/does-your-state-allow-medical-bills-to-appear-on-credit-reports/ Anyway, both CFPB and NBER have published research showing that medical debt is a poor predictor of whether someone will pay their other bills
I have zero clue. I think credit scores are pretty fucked considering they assume everyone can’t pay their debt until they actually take on debt. Like why should you need to open a credit card or take out a loan just to prove that you’re responsible? The fact that you’ve incurred no debt should be sufficient alone
What I was getting at is that the rule defies what the law says. I assume I’m being downvoted because it’s not very progressive to agree with this ruling. While I understand that, I think I’m being consistent here. The executive branch cannot make rules that defy the laws passed by congress. If we want a system that respects checks and balances, we need to be consistent here. We would understandably and correctly be up in arms if Trump passed a rule on immigration that defied what the law says