While hot-button health care issues such as abortion and the Affordable Care Act roil the presidential race, Democrats and Republicans in statehouses around the country have been quietly working together to tackle the nation's medical debt crisis. New laws to curb aggressive hospital billing, to expand charity care for lower-income patients, and to rein in debt collectors have been enacted in more than 20 states since 2021. Democrats championed most measures.
But the legislative efforts often passed with Republican support. In a few states, GOP lawmakers led the push to expand patient protections. "Regardless of their party, regardless of their background .
.. any significant medical procedure can place people into bankruptcy," Florida House Speaker Paul Renner, a conservative Republican, said in an interview.
"This is a real issue.” Renner, who has shepherded controversial measures to curb abortion rights and expand the death penalty in Florida, this year also led an effort to limit when hospitals could send patients to collections. It garnered unanimous support in the Florida Legislature.
Bipartisan measures in other states have gone further, barring unpaid medical bills from consumer credit reports and restricting medical providers from placing liens on patients' homes. About 100 million people in the U.S.
are burdened by some form of health care debt, forcing millions to drain savings, take out second mortgages, or cut back on food and other essentials, KFF Health News h.