Biden Plan Would Dramatically Improve Credit Scores For Millions Of Americans - Ring of Fire

Medical debt should not exist, period. But since it does exist and we have to deal with that reality, President Biden is working on a new proposal that would prevent medical debt from showing up on a person's credit report. This move would immediately improve the credit scores of millions of Americans, as an estimated 20 million people currently say that they have some form of medical debt. Ring of Fire's Farron Cousins explains what's happening.

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*This transcript was generated by a third-party transcription software company, so please excuse any typos.

The Biden administration announced a new proposed, uh, proposed rule last week from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. And this rule if passed, would immediately exempt medical debt from the credit reports of American citizens. Meaning that if you owe medical debt, which 20% of Americans do, that no longer impacts your credit, it's not on your credit report. So whenever you apply for a loan to get a mortgage and buy a house, to buy a car, to open a small business, those medical debts that are keeping millions and millions of Americans away from financial freedom suddenly won't be there if the rule passes. Now, that is the big, you know, it's not done yet, but if this thing goes through, this will be a massive win from the Biden administration. Now, let me make something very clear. Medical debt should not exist at all. Like it shouldn't just not be on our credit reports. It shouldn't be a thing like those shouldn't be two words that go together. Medical debt, I a hundred percent believe that we have to have universal healthcare here in the United States that has no charge at point of service. I 100% endorse that, and that is where we have to be as a country. I also understand that that is not where we are as a country and as it stands, medical debt is unfortunately a thing that exists.

So we have to deal with the reality that we have, not with the reality that we're hoping we get. And for right now, the best this administration can do unilaterally, is to erase that medical debt from our credit reports. And let me tell you why this, this is such a big issue for me. Three years ago, you know, during c Ovid 19 when we were all, you know, still working from home, my wife was working from home and spending that much time in our home here real, made us realize how much we don't like our home. And we had obviously at that point, we were making more money than we did when we initially bought this home. This is our first home. We bought it as a foreclosure in the year 2009. Um, and we did it with a single income of $25,000 a year, by the way. And obviously now that she's working, she wasn't working at the time. Um, we were like, okay, we can afford a better house. So we applied for a new mortgage. There was one black stop, black spot, excuse me, that prevented us from being able to secure a new home loan, a $214 debt to my doctor. I didn't know it existed.

I had $214. I look, I have a family of six, I got four kids, they'll go check the mail sometimes I don't even see it, ever. And it was one of those bills that fell by the wayside. 214 bucks for me at that time was nothing. I could have easily paid it and moved along, but it got moved into collections. And because of that, we were denied a mortgage. And so here we are. So I know what it's like to have that medical debt on your credit report that prevents you from being able to do the things that you want to do in life. As I said, we're still in this house. We have since made some improvements that have made it a little better. We still want to get out, but I'll never forget for the rest of my life, $214 prevented me from being able to buy a new house. And I guarantee you there's millions of more people in that exact same boat. And that's why this is such an important move by the Biden administration. It would be a huge win for people. And again, the goal is to have medical debt not exist at all. But until we get to that point, this move by the administration is the best we can hope for and it's a good move.