The Biden administration rushes to America’s rescue by pressing for the removal of medical-related debt from a consumer’s credit score. Kind of makes sense, for a change: no one frivolously puts takes out a $60k loan for a kidney problem. The problem is, most credit reporting agencies buckled to pressure from the Biden administration many years before there even was a Biden administration.   

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Daniel Cutshall
June 19, 2024 2:08 PM

Don’t forget that there are a whole lot of “Elective” medical costs that are undertaken for reasons other than any kind of necessity. Plastic surgery for the vain purpose of supposed beautification, or breast implants, for instance. There is also a whole lot of expensive surgery performed these days to gratify delusional mental illness in the form of transgenderism. I believe such examples of “Medical Expenses” should be given the full measure of scrutiny by whatever credit rating agency is involved!

Last edited 4 months ago by Daniel Cutshall
Keith Jackson
Reply to  Daniel Cutshall
June 20, 2024 5:45 AM

Nearly all of these patients pay up front.

ACTS (TM)
Reply to  Keith Jackson
June 20, 2024 7:13 AM

Which makes those patients very appealing as a revenue stream. Either the guarantee of later payment (through various insurance capacities) or pre-payment are the best way to make sure you’re going to get paid for a procedure. Paying up front being the very most desireable of the two so there’s a nearly irresistible economic incentive for that kind of medical service. The system promotes that kind of services whether it means to or not.

Arthur Hotchkiss
June 19, 2024 1:00 PM

Another example of government interference and in this case a ploy in an election year. No government solution requested or required. See Congress.

Ron Swansons Alter Ego
June 19, 2024 9:26 AM

I hope Trump sees this episode so that he can point Biden’s dishonesty next week when Joe takes credit during the “debate”.

ACTS (TM)
Reply to  Ron Swansons Alter Ego
June 19, 2024 10:30 AM

Yeah, GMTA, said something like that below. Even if Joe doesn’t try to take credit in the debates, Trump should try to bring up examples of him doing that. So that their lies get a little sunshine and people can see what they’re doing.

James Sarafin
June 19, 2024 8:37 AM

Steve. Biden did not make you jaded over the years. You made yourself jaded. There is no emotion in perception, the emotion is added by your memory. The jaded was in your reaction to Biden but not in your perception of Biden.

Nathan Larson
Reply to  James Sarafin
June 20, 2024 10:27 AM

Yeah, well, you know, that’s just, like, your opinion, man.

James Sarafin
Reply to  Nathan Larson
June 22, 2024 9:19 AM

Yeah, well, you know, that’s you just avoiding discussing the issue. It’s called avoidance. If you want to have a serious conversation then reply and I will send my email address.

Nathan Larson
Reply to  James Sarafin
June 24, 2024 8:51 AM

Just a silly movie quote intended to convey that you’re taking a simple side comment way too seriously. There’s no avoidance, and there’s no need for a “serious conversation”. It’s ok, really….

Keith Jackson
June 19, 2024 8:31 AM

Roughly 30% of Americans, the insured among us, pay for everything. The insured can only have their coverage more affordable at very high deductibles. As a consequence, they don’t go to the doctor because it will put them in the “poor house”. The insured are seemingly the only ones being refused service because of money. I just saw a 92-year-old in my office who takes a medicine that costs $72K a year. This is “covered” under Medicare. Who in their right mind ever thought we could sustain this craziness? This will all end badly, and my grandchildren will bear the… Read more »

Nathan Larson
Reply to  Keith Jackson
June 24, 2024 9:45 PM

One of the reasons I avoid going to the doctor. A few years ago I bashed my face with part of the k-member of a 75 Vega (yeah, I got hit by a parked car.. heh heh…) and needed 3 stitches. I drove a little farther to find an urgent care clinic instead of the ER. While I stood there with my head bleeding, they told me my insurance would cover it. Got a $2000 bill in the mail a few weeks later.

James Sarafin
June 19, 2024 8:31 AM

They keep the bad news on your credit report for seven years because of greed. They charge more interest for those with lower credit scores.

Allen Lawless
June 19, 2024 7:39 AM

The “medical” issue we’re discussing here also extends to the dental insurance scam. Bottom line: For me (I have no children with orthodontic issues), it’s FAR cheaper to just pay the cost of dental treatment — and if you’re lucky, as I’ve mostly been over the years, the cost of dental treatment paid out of pocket without insurance is the way to go. If, on the other hand, you’re a problem child with lots of dental issues or your family is festooned with orthodontic issues, dental insurance may be the best option. Note to self: Make an appointment. You ain’t… Read more »

Keith Jackson
Reply to  Allen Lawless
June 20, 2024 6:20 AM

This reminds me of something I remind folks of daily. The number one health issue in human beings is their dental health. But there’s never been a “national health care emergency” requiring intervention by the government involving teeth. That’s because the government and insurance didn’t manage to get in the front door to control the economics of the system until recently. And dentists just add the cost they would normally charge to whatever “insurance” pays anyway, subverting the whole idea of insurance.

Nathan Larson
Reply to  Keith Jackson
June 24, 2024 9:52 PM

Mainly because we put sugar in EVERYTHING.. I had a steak at a restaurant recently, and I could tell they put sugar on it. Sheer insanity. Then we started putting Fluoride in our water supplies to mask the effects of all the sugar (lobbied for by the sugar industry). Who knows what that’s doing to us, but I happen to be one of those problem children with all the dental problems even though I’ve been drinking fluoride water all my life (except since getting a good water filter), and even ate fluoride pills as a kid (that used to be… Read more »

Donald Lehoux
June 19, 2024 6:58 AM

you missed 2 main points; it will never come to a vote and if it was important enough why did they wait until the last year to mention this?

ACTS (TM)
Reply to  Donald Lehoux
June 19, 2024 7:50 AM

You missed two important points. No one is discussing putting this up for a vote. It was only “mentioned” because the Biden Administration is trying to take credit for something it didn’t have anything to do with and was going to happen anyway. Commercial lending and credit institutions need to lend money to exist. They can’t lend money to people with lousy credit scores so this is a way to get around that. That, among other things, is why this move was “important enough” for the credit/lending companies to make this move. The third and most vital point you missed… Read more »

ACTS (TM)
June 19, 2024 6:06 AM

This is one of those things were ideologically pure, strict capitalism fails us as a system. Capitalism is great, it’s not perfect. Capitalism is the best economic system ever devised by mankind so far. That doesn’t mean we can’t do better. As a Conservative my preference is that we approach any attempts to improve on Capitalism very conservatively and cautiously. This idea of not including medical debt on a credit rating seems to me to be a step in the right direction. As was pointed out in the episode this isn’t discretionary spending, you don’t go shopping for lifesaving cures… Read more »

Last edited 4 months ago by ACTS (TM)
Keith Jackson
Reply to  ACTS (TM)
June 20, 2024 6:12 AM

I get what you are saying, and mostly agree. Extracting medical costs out of the craziness seems ethical on its surface.. Medical costs are the farthest thing removed from capitalism there is in our economy. Capitalism is the free exchange of goods and services. Like I’ve preached throughout this thread, there is remarkably little about costs in healthcare that have ever been based in reasonable free exchange.
As for the impotent beneficial effects of left-wing policies, “free stuff” promises get them elected and the more “free stuff” promised the more reliant on “free stuff” we become.

Last edited 4 months ago by Keith Jackson
ACTS (TM)
Reply to  Keith Jackson
June 20, 2024 6:52 AM

I find it deliciously ironic that the Biden Administration is trying to extract “free stuff” in the form of political credit for something that the market, which they oppose in principle and practice was creating anyway, without and despite them. In effect trying to buy votes with something they commandeered as a credit to themselves for free. There’s no bottom to the slippery slope of moral turpitude. Once you abandon sound principles it’s just a race to the bottom. That’s why we have to be very cautious when tinkering with Capitalism as an economic system. The only way to avoid… Read more »

Last edited 4 months ago by ACTS (TM)
Karl Schweitzer
June 18, 2024 6:42 PM

I suppose the people that looked into something like this know what they are doing, but my first thought was “If you have a large, outstanding, debt how able are you going to be to pay me back if I loan you money? Intentions aside, CAN you pay me back when you also have to pay THEM back?”

We really do need to give the medical industry a general overhaul and I know some various levels of government have tried. There was supposed to be a transparency in pricing that has not happened yet.

Paul Drallos
Reply to  Karl Schweitzer
June 19, 2024 7:13 AM

This was my thought, too. Credit scores give a measure of a person’s ability to repay a loan. Whether a debt was elective or not, it still exists and impacts one’s ability to take on more debt. If I was going to loan someone some money, I’d sure want to know if they had a mountain of medical debt and their ability to cope with it.

David Pimentel
Reply to  Karl Schweitzer
June 19, 2024 8:24 AM

transparency in pricing

:rofl:

There is a pipe dream. No bureaucrat, lawyer or politician is willing to divulge such secrets.