Even if it didn’t, even if it worked exactly as intended, it doesn’t fix anything. It just moves the problem. Now you’re incentivized to focus on paying down other debts because medical debt doesn’t hurt your credit. Now you’re paying car payments, rent, student loan debt, credit cards, etc. first and medical debt last (if at all). Now hospital prices rocket even higher because even more people aren’t making payments, insurance premiums soar further, and absolutely nothing is fixed. The system is broken and it’s not because of credit scores.
We need to solve medical debt by addressing the source of the problem. Insurance. At minimum we need a public option. Better still, Medicare for all. Medical care should be socialized. Health is not capital. The threat of crippling debt or injury, disease and death without treatment should not be a profit generator for the protection racket that is insurance.
Even if it didn’t, even if it worked exactly as intended, it doesn’t fix anything. It just moves the problem. Now you’re incentivized to focus on paying down other debts because medical debt doesn’t hurt your credit. Now you’re paying car payments, rent, student loan debt, credit cards, etc. first and medical debt last (if at all). Now hospital prices rocket even higher because even more people aren’t making payments, insurance premiums soar further, and absolutely nothing is fixed. The system is broken and it’s not because of credit scores.
We need to solve medical debt by addressing the source of the problem. Insurance. At minimum we need a public option. Better still, Medicare for all. Medical care should be socialized. Health is not capital. The threat of crippling debt or injury, disease and death without treatment should not be a profit generator for the protection racket that is insurance.