The Michigan Senate has approved five bills seeking to ease the burden of medical debt faced by many state residents.
The bills sponsored by Republican state Senator Jonathan Lindsey and Democratic state Senator Sarah Anthony would place new limits on how medical debt can be collected and require hospitals to provide more financial assistance to patients.
Lindsey, who represents all of Cass County and part of Berrien County, tells us one of his bills requires hospitals to create financial assistance programs to improve options for those hit with debt.
“It’s not a heavy-handed approach that suggests anything like getting rid of a medical debt or saying that we couldn’t have this,” Lindsey said. “I don’t think that would work. But instead what it does is try to put some guardrails around it to make sure that it’s not resold in certain ways that end up with people being on this treadmill of never being able to pay their medical debt off.”
Lindsey is also working on legislation to require transparency with medical service prices so people know what they’ll be charged.
Other bills in the package would restrict aggressive collection practices like placing liens on property, garnishing wages, or foreclosing homes to recover unpaid medical bills. The measures would also cap interest rates that can be applied to medical debt at 3%. Lindsey says that will lead to more debate in the state House.
“There are already some House members who have commented on this and think that maybe there should be other solutions, that might not even be the right number. I will say that I think it should be addressed in some fashion.”
Lindsey says this is all about ensuring people aren’t crushed under medical bills while being exploited.
Although the bills don’t go as far as the reforms called for by Governor Gretchen Whitmer in her State of the State address, they did pass the Senate with nearly unanimous support. Lindsey says he’s encouraged to see some bipartisan agreement.
The bill receiving final approval in the Senate are Senate Bills 449, 450, 451, 701 and 702.
