Three years after her stage four cancer diagnosis, Brittany Lewis has surpassed the median survival rate for glioblastoma, a highly aggressive type of brain tumor.
Her diagnosis and treatment, however, came with a five-digit price tag that has added financial distress to a mentally and physically challenging prognosis.
鈥淔inancial problems are not something you want to have, especially in the midst of someone telling you you have six months to live or, yeah, you have about 18 months to live,鈥� she said.
of adults 鈥� about 2.3 million people 鈥� have medical debt, according to the health policy nonprofit KFF. Nationwide, around 20 million people 鈥� 1 in 12 adults 鈥� owe money directly to their health providers.
鈥淚f you have one fall or one illness that lands you in the emergency room, most Americans don鈥檛 have the out-of-pocket costs required to cover what they might need to pay for that and that additional money they owe,鈥� said Lynne Cotter, KFF senior health policy research manager.
In January, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau under the Biden administration announced a finalized federal rule that would remove medical debt from consumer credit reports. The agency said in a Jan. 7 the rule change would wipe about $49 billion in medical debt from about 15 million Americans' credit reports. The rule would also lead to the approval of 22,000 affordable mortgages.
Proponents described the rule as helpful but limited.
The rule neither eliminates debt, nor does it address credit card debt associated with medical expenses. However, the CFPB estimated the new rule would raise people鈥檚 credit scores by an average of 20 points.
Charles Miller, , said medical debt is not an effective way of judging a person鈥檚 creditworthiness.
鈥淢edical debt is a lot more arbitrary than other types of debt,鈥� he said. 鈥淭here is limited ability of people and consumers to control the amount of that medical debt. And some of that stems from the fact that prices are not terribly transparent and the fact that patients have very little ability to control what happens to them once they get into a situation where they need medical treatment.鈥�
Lewis found help through the group , which helps people manage different forms of debt. The nonprofit helped negotiate Lewis' interest and payments.
The rule would have made a difference during her treatments, she said. She would not have had to scramble to pay her debt, and her credit score would not have taken as much of a hit.
鈥淚鈥檓 not saying that I鈥檓 just going to leave it there, but it鈥檚 one of those things where I鈥檒l be like, 鈥業鈥檓 going to come back to it,'" she said. "Now I feel like I鈥檓 battling literally for the little bit of financial and credit life that I have."
Unclear future for CFPB, rule
The rule was scheduled to go into effect in March. However, it鈥檚 unclear whether it will go into effect at all after a change in the White House and amid legal challenges.
Two lawsuits filed in federal courts claim the rule contradicts the Fair Credit Reporting Act, which allows consumer reporting agencies to consider medical debt.
The trade association ACA International and medical billing company Specialized Collections Systems, Inc., in court in Houston. Plano-based Cornerstone Credit Union League and the Consumer Data Industry Association in a U.S. District court in Sherman.
Judges in both cases approved the Trump administration鈥檚 requests to delay court proceedings until May. U.S. District Judge Sean Jordan approved a delay of the rule鈥檚 effective date
Russell Vought, CFPB acting director, issued a directive to agency staff and contractors to stop working Feb. 10, The same week, the agency .
On Feb. 14, a blocked the agency from laying off more employees. followed lawsuits filed by the National Treasury Employees Union against the agency.
U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson set a March 3 hearing date in the case.
Joyce Beebe, a public finance fellow at Rice University鈥檚 Baker Institute for Public Policy, does not believe the Trump administration can eliminate the CFPB without an act of Congress. She also doubts the CFPB would prevail in the lawsuits.
鈥淚 do see reasons that the people who sue the (CFPB) will probably win because there are clear laws saying that medical debt can be reported,鈥� she said.
Got a tip? Email Kailey Broussard at kbroussard@kera.org.
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