The nation’s three major credit bureaus say they are overhauling how they include medical debt in a consumer’s credit history.
Some 43 million Americans have an estimated $88 billion in medical debt on their credit files, according to a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau report released earlier this month.The companies couched the announcement as their efforts to help households recover and move on from the pandemic. That’s despite CFPB research indicating that past due medical bill information is not a reliable indicator of a person’s capacity to pay their other bills, the agency noted.
Nearly two-thirds of all bills in collections during the second quarter of 2021 were medical bills, the CFPB said. The credit reporting agencies’ announcement was in some ways the latest in a series of consumer-friendly actions within the credit-reporting industry, said Ted Rossman, senior industry analyst at Bankrate.
Compared to a 9% national average, 11% of people aged 35-49 reported medical debts and it was 12% for the 50 to 64 demographic. ‘A huge and important development’ While government officials wait to hear more from the three credit reporting agencies, consumer advocates say based on what they know right now, this is good news for many consumers.
Loans Loans Latest News, Loans Loans Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Source: FoxNews - 🏆 9. / 87 Read more »
Source: ABC7 - 🏆 67. / 68 Read more »
Source: KCBSRadio - 🏆 516. / 51 Read more »