Blumenthal & Colleagues Fight for Patients & Consumer Protections as Trump Puts Americans' Medical Debt Back on Credit Reports

[Hartford, CT] – U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) joined colleagues in introducing the Medical Debt Relief Act to push back against recent efforts by the Trump Administration to roll back federal protections aiming to keep medical debt off Americans’ credit reports.

The Medical Debt Relief Act would ban all medical debt from appearing on credit reports and prohibit creditors from considering Americans’ medical debt in their decisions on whether to extend them credit. An estimated 280,000 Connecticut residents report having medical debt each year.

“A lot of Americans are one paycheck away from financial disaster – a car crash or a medical incident can cause financial ruin. The impact is not only immediate on household finances, but also potentially longstanding because once medical debt is reported it can stay on credit reports for years and years,” said Blumenthal at a press conference in Hartford. “The Medical Debt Relief Act would protect people, not give them a free pass from the debt, but ensure that they are protected against credit reporting that handicaps and straightjackets their financial status.”

1-in-5 Americans reported having medical debt, and it is the number one reason Americans file for bankruptcy. Medical debt is the most common type of consumer debt in collection, accounting for over $88 billion of all consumer debt. Medical debt also tends to plague the most vulnerable, including the uninsured, those who are chronically ill or disabled, and minority communities. Medical debt collections information is often inaccurate or inflated, and studies show that it is not useful in determining a consumer’s ability to repay other debts.

The Medical Debt Relief Act protects patients from the financial harm that medical debt causes and codifies a federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) rule that removed medical debt from credit reports for 15 million people. Specifically, the bill:

• Excludes all medical debt from credit reports; and
• Requires the Director of the CFPB to prohibit creditors from obtaining or using consumers’ medical debt in credit decisions.

The Medical Debt Relief Act is led by U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR) and U.S. Representatives Nikema Williams (D-GA-05) and Lou Correa (D-CA-46) and co-sponsored by U.S. Senators John Fetterman (D-PA), Peter Welch (D-VT), Reverend Raphael Warnock (D-GA), and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), and U.S. Representatives Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL-08), Delia C. Ramirez (D-IL-03), Mary Gay Scanlon (D-PA-05), Tim Kennedy (D-NY-26), Jesus “Chuy” Garcia (D-IL-04), Bennie Thompson (D-MS-02), and Hank Johnson (D-GA-04).

The bill is supported by the National Consumer Law Center (on behalf of its low-income clients), Consumer Action, California Low-Income Consumer Coalition, Justice in Aging, Center for Responsible Lending, Consumer Federation of America, and Americans for Financial Reform.

Full text of the Medical Debt Relief Act can be found here.

Last month, Blumenthal also joined a letter pushing the Trump administration for answers regarding the CFPB’s decision to vacate the medical debt rule finalized in January 2025. The letter demands CFPB share any data the agency relied on in deciding to petition a court to vacate the rule and any communications it had with entities during the process that would profit from its decision. The full text of the letter is available here.

Video of Senator Blumenthal’s press conference today in Hartford is available here.

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