Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison today celebrated Governor Tim Walz’s signing of the Debt Fairness Act, which provides Minnesotans repaying debt, including medical debt, with more protections. These reforms include banning the automatic transfer of medical debt to one’s spouse, banning reporting medical debt to credit bureaus, and banning denying necessary medical care on the basis of unpaid bills.
Senator Liz Boldon and Representative Liz Reyer, chief authors of the bill, introduced it for the first time in February of this year and shepherded it through to pass both houses of the Legislature in less than four months. Attorney General Ellison championed the bill.
At the national level, President Biden’s administration is moving forward with similar reforms: just last week, Vice President Kamala Harris announced that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is proposing a new rule to ban the reporting of medical debt to credit agencies. This would bring the number of Americans who have medical debt on their credit reports from 46 million to zero.
“We all agree that if you borrow money, you should pay it back. We also all agree that we shouldn’t punish people for getting sick. We also agree that a debt-collection system that makes it harder for people to pay back what they owe does nobody any good. And we also agree that debt collection shouldn’t create more debt,” Attorney General Ellison said.
“With the passage and signing today of the Debt Fairness Act, we have a fairer, more dignified, and more just system for repaying debt than we did before. My thanks go to chief authors Senator Liz Boldon and Representative Liz Reyer for their outstanding work in seeing it through to passage, and to Governor Walz and Lieutenant Governor Flanagan for their steadfast support. There is more work to do and we’re not done yet — but today, Minnesotans facing debt, including medical debt, can rest easier in the knowledge that the law provides them with more protections than it did before,” Attorney General Ellison concluded.
A complete summary of the Debt Fairness Act is available here. Key provisions of the Act include:
- Medical-debt reforms
- Judgment-collection reforms
- Bankruptcy reforms
The Official Website of Office of Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison.
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