Medical Debt and Your Credit Score

A Weird Win for Regular People?

As of right now, medical debt will no longer count against your credit score starting June 15, 2025.

"Prohibition on Creditors and Consumer Reporting Agencies Concerning Medical Information (Regulation V)"
Published in the Federal Register on January 14, 2025
Docket No. CFPB-2024-0023 | RIN 3170-AA54
📄 Read the full rule (PDF)
📘 Rule summary on CFPB.gov

This is a federal rule issued by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). It bans the inclusion of any medical debt on credit reports used by lenders. That includes hospitals, doctors, dentists—the whole white coat mafia. Even a $5,000 ER bill that went to collections won't ding your credit anymore.

Wait—Isn't That... Kinda Bad?

Honestly, yeah. There's a part of me that flinches at this. I'm a free-market libertarian, not a fan of government micromanagement. On paper, this looks like a moral hazard: if unpaid bills don’t affect credit scores, why ever pay them again—unless your conscience tells you to?

But here’s the catch: the U.S. medical system is so fundamentally broken, opaque, and misaligned with basic market signals, this might be one of those weird “1001 wrongs make a meh” moments.

There’s no real price discovery. There's no shopping around in an ambulance. You can’t even get a quote. Half the bills are riddled with errors or negotiated post-hoc by insurance or collectors. So, tying credit scores to this mess never made sense to begin with.

My Take: Pay if You Can and if You Feel It's Legit

If you're in a position to pay a medical bill and believe it's accurate and fair, then by all means pay it. But if you’re being shaken down by a hospital collections department over a surprise charge that no one can explain—well, maybe it’s time they figure out how to survive without your $NNNN.

Pay yourself first.
Let the medical-industrial complex sort itself out.

The Threat: House & Senate Resolutions to Kill This Rule

Two resolutions have been introduced in Congress to reverse the CFPB's rule:

🏛️ House Joint Resolution 74 (H.J.Res.74) — sponsored by Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC)
🏛️ Senate Joint Resolution 36 (S.J.Res.36) — sponsored by Sen. Mike Rounds (R-SD)

These are Republican-led efforts to bring back medical debt reporting. Ironically, that means they're fighting on behalf of credit bureaus and debt collectors—not exactly a populist stance.

Personally, I think that’s a losing issue. The optics are bad. It's the kind of populist thing that could attract bipartisan support to maintain the rule.

Want to Keep the Rule?

If you want to help protect this rule, here are steps you can take:

🗣️ Contact Your Representatives

Find your members of Congress: congress.gov/members
Politely urge them to oppose H.J.Res.74 and S.J.Res.36
Example message:

"Please vote NO on H.J.Res.74 and S.J.Res.36. Medical billing is chaotic and error-prone, and credit reports should reflect actual financial responsibility—not a hospital’s administrative mistakes."

🤝 Support Advocacy Efforts

Final Thought

I still believe in personal responsibility, limited government, and skin in the game. But I also believe in legibility, transparency, and fair play—none of which describe the current healthcare billing system.

So yeah, this rule feels paradoxical. But I’m keeping it in my mental folder marked:

“Good outcome, weird road.”

📚 Further Reading

No ads, no sponsorships. Just one guy trying to think through how broken systems interact with credit scores.