Bill to Help Lessen Medical Debt to be Heard on Oklahoma House Floor
$88 billion. That’s more than the nominal Gross Domestic Product of Costa Rica. And it’s the amount the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau estimates U.S. collection agencies are pursuing related to medical bills.
That’s only what’s in collections. A recent KFF analysis of government data estimates that people in the United States owe at least $220 billion in medical debt. Approximately 14 million people (6% of adults) in the U.S. owe more than $1,000 in medical debt and about 3 million people (1% of adults) owe medical debt of more than $10,000.
As Paul Monies reported, the Oklahoma House of Representatives will vote on a measure meant to alleviate some of the debt carried by Oklahoma patients. House Bill 4148, by Rep. Suzanne Schreiber, D-Tulsa, and Rep. Mark Lepak, R-Claremore, would require health care providers or third-party debt collectors to tell the court they made the patient aware of the costs of care before a debt-collection lawsuit can proceed.
Schreiber said HB 4148 was just one of several proposals that could help Oklahomans facing medical debt collections and lawsuits. The bill would give some enforcement powers to an existing state law, the Transparency in Health Care Prices Act, passed in 2021. That law requires health-care providers to post the cash price for the top 20 services offered by that provider.
One in five Oklahomans had some type of medical debt in collections in 2022, according to The Urban Institute. The median amount in collections was close to $900.
Trevor Brown reported in 2019 that Oklahoma hospitals sue thousands of patients annually, a topic Salon took up at the national level in 2022. The conservative Oklahoma Council for Public Affairs argued for more pricing transparency to prevent surprise bills and heavy debt. But Oklahoma is not alone.
Commissioners in Orange County, Florida on Tuesday agreed to use $4.5 million of American Rescue Plan money to buy and erase medical debt for struggling county residents.
While the average share of Americans with debt is about 2.3% nationally, adults in Georgia with medical debt was more than five times higher at 12.7%, according to the KFF analysis. However, data compiled by the Urban Institute reported that 17.3% of Georgians owe medical debt that is in collections.
More worth reading:
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After the state grocery sales tax elimination bill passed through the Senate in a 42-to-2 vote Thursday, House Bill 1955 is now making its way to Gov. Kevin Stitt’s desk. [Tulsa World]
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The student, who did not identify as male or female, according to their family, died a day after an altercation in a school bathroom. The police said the death was not a result of trauma. [NYT]
Court Allows Oral Arguments for Massacre Survivors
The Oklahoma Supreme Court has scheduled oral arguments for the two last known living survivors of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre in their appeal seeking reparations for the 103-year-old government-sanctioned racial domestic terror attack. [Black Wall Street Times]
Oklahoma is 46th among U.S. states with 209.56 physicians in patient care for every 100,000 residents.
Ciao for now,
Ted Streuli
Executive Director, Oklahoma Watch
tstreuli@oklahomawatch.org
