this post was submitted on 07 Jan 2025
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politics

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How is this not bigger news?! This is life changing for a great many Americans.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago (3 children)

Yes however medical debt is covered under hipa. When the debt agencies buy your medical debt they are violating hipa laws. There are a lot of strategies for eliminating this type of debt without ever paying it. Usually simply asking for debt verification is enough to get it removed from your credit report.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago

My strategy of literally ignoring collectors and sending all their calls to voicemail (for a surgery done in early 2023 in which I owed a couple thousand dollars) actually worked. I was called once a week or so for a little over a year and I haven't been contacted since June 2024.

I believe I was dinged on my credit score but the penalty was low single-digits, and it didn't affect my eligibility to buy a house. Your mileage will vary, and I definitely can't in good conscience recommend this as your first resort. Talk to a professional about risks and benefits of not paying certain debts if you can't or don't want to pay; some debts are not optional. But yeah, some are.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago

The strategy that seems to work the best is just to never interact with the debt from the start, it becomes almost impossible for them to collect.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago

This is the second time I've heard this in as many days... do you have any sources I could look at?