Sanders plan would cancel $81 billion in US medical debt
WASHINGTON — Bernie Sanders has long wanted to remake the health care system so no one will have to pay directly for medical care again. Now, he also wants to go back and cancel all the medical debts of people who have been billed under the current system.
In a plan released Saturday, Sanders, the Vermont senator and presidential candidate, proposes wiping out an estimated $81 billion in existing debt and changing rules around debt collection and bankruptcy. He also calls for replacing the giant credit reporting agencies with a “public credit registry” that would ignore medical debt when calculating credit scores.
The proposals reflect Sanders’ concern that the medical system has placed financial hardships on too many Americans, by discouraging them from seeking needed medical care — but also by saddling them with expensive bills that can harm their financial security, ding their credit and, in some cases, lead to bankruptcy.
The plan is Sanders’ latest effort to transform the health care system in America, a goal on which he has staked not just his second presidential run, but much of his political legacy. He is the first top-tier contender to call for such drastic measures on medical debt.
“We’re addressing it on both ends,” Sanders said. “We’re addressing it now by trying to help the people who have past due medical bills. And we’re addressing it by finally creating a health care system that guarantees coverage to people without any premiums, without any deductibles, without any out-of-pocket expenses.”
The plan would also create a public credit rating agency to replace for-profit companies like Equifax, and it would exclude medical debts from credit ratings.
Margot Sanger-Katz and Sydney Ember are New York Times writers.