New Trump administration rule would override state medical debt protections

A new Trump administration rule issued late last month would override state laws that prevent consumers’ credit reports from including medical debt, potentially weakening financial protections for millions of Americans.

In recent years, more than a dozen states have taken steps to keep medical debt from hurting residents’ credit scores, passing laws with bipartisan support. But new guidance from the federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau repeals a Biden-era rule that allowed states to impose their own bans. The Trump administration has interpreted the 1970 Fair Credit Reporting Act to say that it overrides state laws around reporting debt to credit bureaus.

American consumers had at least $220 billion in unpaid medical bills in 2024, according to an analysis from research nonprofit KFF. About 6% of American adults, or 14 million people, owe more than $1,000 in medical debt.

“Medical debt is a tremendous weight keeping so many families from financial security, and, unlike most other forms of debt, it’s not a choice,” North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein, a Democrat, said last month in a statement announcing that a new state program had wiped out more than $6.5 billion in medical debt for more than 25 million North Carolinians.

https://stateline.org/2025/11/06/new-trump-administration-rule-would-override-state-medical-debt-protections/