New Laws Begin Today to Shield Residents from Rising Medical Debt

(KNSI) — A set of new laws goes into effect today to help protect residents from mounting medical debt.

The Minnesota Debt Fairness Act bans the automatic transfer of medical debt to one’s spouse, reporting medical debt to credit bureaus, and denial of necessary medical care based on unpaid bills.

Lawmakers say the insurance we used to count on is now full of loopholes and exceptions, which means more people are carrying more of the cost of their care. Minnesota Senate Majority Leader Erin Murphy explained to KNSI News lawmakers were spurred to action after finding out people were putting off needed healthcare and medical procedures because they were afraid of accruing high medical debt. “We want to make sure that people are getting the care that they need without fear. We purchase insurance to cover the costs of our care. And the care should be covered by our insurance policies, and providers shouldn’t be left holding the bag either. So, we have more work to do, but the first step that we took was to protect Minnesotans as the consumers of health care.”

The legislation also establishes new protections from unethical medical debt collection practices, requires medical providers to publish their debt collection practices and creates a new process to help people dispute medical coding and billing errors.

Minnesota becomes only the second state to enact such protections. The other is Virginia.

___