Press Release  Governor Healey Announces Plan to Ban Medical Debt from Showing Up on Credit Reports

Boston — In her third State of the Commonwealth Address tonight, Governor Maura Healey announced a new plan to protect Massachusetts consumers from unfair medical debt. She will soon file new regulations to ban medical debt from being reported to credit agencies. 

“We’re going to ban medical debt from being reported to credit agencies,” said Governor Healey. “It’s bad enough to get a huge bill when you’re dealing with an illness. It shouldn’t wreck your credit, so we’re not going to let that happen... Health care in America is broken, and we can’t wait for Washington to act. We’re the state with the best healthcare, we’re going to be the state that fixes it.”  

To address high health care costs, Governor Healey invested the most state funding in the country to protect 270,000 people on ConnectorCare from premium increases because of President Trump’s refusal to extend Affordable Care Act tax credits. She also recently announced that, starting this year, in Massachusetts, patients will no longer need permission from their insurance company to get the vast majority of medicines or procedures that their doctor prescribes. And if they change jobs, their approvals will stay with them. The Governor’s newly formed Health Care Affordability Working Group will also continue working throughout the year on additional ways to lower health care costs. 

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