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BITCOIN BACCARAT
Even as America’s medical debt has morphed into a multi-billion dollar money monster, Vice President Kamala Harris has promised to kill the beast if elected to the nation’s highest office.
Harris’s stated intention to forgive medical debt for millions of Americans forms part of the economic plan she unveiled in mid-August during a campaign stop in Raleigh, N.C. It’s a lofty goal, considering nearly 1-in-12 adults (8%) owe medical debt totaling at least $220 billion as of December 2021, according to a 2024 Peterson-KFF analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data.
Finding the money to pay off medical debt, including dental bills, is like pulling teeth for consumers. KFF research shows 6-in-10 medical debtors cut spending on food, clothing and essential household items, while 4-in-10 took on another job or worked extra hours.
Can Harris’s goal be realized? There’s a chance. Her proposal follows a June White House announcement that American Rescue Plan funds would eliminate roughly $7 billion in medical debt for nearly 3 million people by the end of 2026. It also stated a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau proposal to remove medical debt from the credit reports of more than 15 million people, intending to expand it to all affected Americans.
States such as Arizona, Connecticut, Illinois and Pennsylvania have also gate io. But can all this bring the speeding freight train of runaway medical expenses to a screeching halt? Here, the prognosis isn’t so rosy.
