The Trump administration took another step Tuesday to weaken protections for Americans with medical debt, issuing new guidance that threatens ongoing state efforts to keep that debt off consumers’ credit reports.
More than a dozen states, including Washington, Oregon, California, Colorado, Minnesota, Maryland, New York, and most of New England, have enacted laws in recent years to keep medical debt from affecting consumers’ credit.
And more states — including several in conservative regions of the Midwest and Mountain West — have been considering similar protections, spurred by bipartisan concerns that medical debt on a credit report can make it harder for people to get a home, a car, or a job.
Nationwide, about 100 million people have some form of health care debt, with millions burdened by $10,000 or more in unpaid bills.
But in the new guidance, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau asserts that federal law bars states from restricting medical debts from credit reports, arguing that only the federal government has this authority.
“Congress meant to occupy the field of consumer reporting and displace state laws,” the bureau concluded in an “interpretive rule” signed by Russell Vought, the White House budget director and acting head of the CFPB.
The guidance, which offers a new interpretation of the Fair Credit Reporting Act, reverses policies advanced under former President Joe Biden that sought to empower states to expand protections for people with medical debt.
The Tr …