Pennsylvania moves bill to eliminate USD 400M in medical debt

Pennsylvania estimates that nearly 1 million residents carry some form of medical debt with nearly $2 billion in collections.

The state legislature’s only doctor is working to lift that burden, eliminate that debt, and ease the pain of countless patients in Pennsylvania.

Lori Weise of Lebanon is cancer-free after three surgeries, but being cancer-free, isn’t free.

“Five years later, I still have this medical debt and I pay my payments every month and I feel like it’ll never go away,” Weise said.

Emergency room doctor, and now State Representative Arvind Venkat (D-Allegheny) says a patient, clearly in pain, told him she steered clear of doctors because of previous medical debt

“So she had delayed seeking care until, frankly, she came and saw me,” said Venkat, “and it was too late.”

That’s the motivation behind Venkat’s medical debt relief bill, which would use tax dollars to pay off medical bills for low-income Pennsylvanians. Governor Shapiro’s budget wants $4 million to help pay medical debt, Venkat says he would wipe out $400 million.

“The beautiful thing about medical debt relief is that you can acquire, you can purchase medical debt for pennies on the dollar,” said Venkat. “It’s substituting for what is now a very broken system with debt buyers and debt collectors.”

Venkat’s bill passed the Democrat-controlled House and is stalled in the Republican-controlled Senate.

State House Republican Spokesman Jason Gottesman says it’s impossible to cancel debt such as this.

“What they’re trying to do is they’re trying to transfer existing debt on the taxpayers,” said Gottesman. “So you’re not actually eliminating that debt.”

“It’s stressful because you’re putting your energy and how am I going to manage these bills,” said Weise. “You don’t want your credit to be ruined over it. You don’t want to not pay your bills, but you really need to be recuperating after a surgery.”

There are lots of legislative wants this time of year, and what Venkat wants is for his bill to be part of the budget negotiations. YourErie