Credit Report Credibility Crisis - Oncologist: Medical bills on credit reports punishes people for having cancer

The cost of cancer care has soared so high that nearly half of patients and survivors who participated in a recent survey from the American Cancer Society reported incurring medical debt. Across the country, people’s lives are harmed by medical bills that they cannot afford to pay. Often, this results in patients accumulating debt — or delaying or forgoing care. Some reports have shown that patients are sued for bills when they should have qualified for free care.

To make matters worse, after the passage of the new tax bill, millions of Americans are on the precipice of losing their health insurance, which will inevitably lead to more medical debt. It’s particularly devastating because earlier this year, America took a small step away from punishing people for being sick. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) finalized a rule to remove medical bills from most credit reports. But the rule was challenged in court before it could take effect, and last week, a Texas judge vacated it. At this point, an appeal seems unlikely.

What makes medical debt unique is that it isn’t accrued irresponsibly; it’s accrued out of necessity. Nobody chooses cancer, and nobody chooses medical debt.

Yet for many, damaged credit can lead to denial of housing and car loans. Cancer patients being unable to get treatment because they don’t have transportation or stable housing is unconscionable — but it’s not uncommon. The rule would have been a welcome reprieve for patients like Amanda Schlesier, a 33-year-old Michigan-based volunteer with the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. While her friends pursued the American dream — falling in love, buying houses, and starting families — she found herself in the American nightmare: not only enduring blood cancer treatment, but also facing its exorbitant cost. After being diagnosed with chronic lymphocytic leukemia in April 2018, medical bills and calls from debt collectors have been a constant echo in her life.

https://www.statnews.com/2025/07/22/medical-debt-credit-reports-consumer-financial-protection-bureau-rule-vacated-court/

Including unreasonable and ridiculously inflated medical bills on credit reports says more about the lack of credibility of credit bureaus than it does the patient's ability or willingness to pay bills.

Medical bills are too arbitrary to be a part of credit reports.