Milestone comes on the heels of Medical Debt Day of Action where Georgia residents shared their stories and urged the Biden administration to prohibit medical debt from impacting credit scores.
ATLANTA — Today, the Biden-Harris administration announced that it is taking executive action to prevent medical debt from impacting credit scores. This important action comes just over a week after Georgia Watch executive director Liz Coyle traveled to Washington, D.C. as part of a Medical Debt Day of Action convened by Community Catalyst. Together, participants urged the Biden administration to take more aggressive action to address the medical debt crisis in America. One key ask was for the administration to take action to stop medical debt from showing up on credit scores.
“We applaud the Biden-Harris administration for taking this important step to address the medical debt crisis in America. This milestone will provide relief to people in Georgia who have had their credit unfairly impacted simply because they got sick,” said Liz Coyle, executive director of Georgia Watch. “We urge the Biden administration to build on this important announcement by continuing to provide additional protections our community needs, including a prohibition on predatory deferred interest credit cards and new protections against unfair practices at some non-profit hospitals.”
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About Georgia Watch
Founded in 2002, Georgia Watch is a statewide, non-profit consumer advocacy organization working to inform and protect Georgia consumers on matters that significantly impact their quality of life, including the effects of predatory business practices, the high cost of utilities and healthcare, and restricted access to the civil justice system. For more information, visit www.georgiawatch.org.
About Community Catalyst:
Community Catalyst is a national organization dedicated to building the power of people to create a health system rooted in race equity and health justice, and a society where health is a right for all. We’re an experienced, trusted partner to organizations across the country, a change agent to policymakers at the local, state, and national level, and both an adversary and a collaborator to health systems in our efforts to advance health justice. We partner with local, state and national organizations and leaders to leverage and build power so that people are at the center of important decisions about health and health care, whether they are made by health care executives, in state houses, or on Capitol Hill. Together with partners, we’re building a powerful, united movement with a shared vision of and strategy for a health system accountable to all people. Learn more at communitycatalyst.org.