Noam Levey

Patients’ experiences encapsulate breakdowns in a healthcare system that traps patients in debt. The industry’s key players blame one another.

Reversing guidance from the Biden administration, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau concludes that states cannot bar medical debt from their residents’ credit reports.

Some states are enacting medical debt laws as the Trump administration pulls back federal protections. Elsewhere, industry opposition has derailed legislation.

Undue Medical Debt is retiring unpaid medical bills for 20 million people. The debt trading company that owned them is leaving the market.

The move, which comes less than two weeks before President-elect Donald Trump is set to take office, represents a challenge to the new administration.

In red and blue states, state lawmakers from both parties are expanding protections for patients burdened by medical debt.