WASHINGTON–U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), a member of the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, on Friday released the following statement on the announcement of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) rulemaking process to remove medical debt from Americans’ credit reports. If finalized, the rule would remove medical bills from consumers’ credit reports, stop creditors from relying on medical bills for underwriting, and end coercive collection practices.

“No one should be forced into bankruptcy simply because they got sick. It’s even worse that after being involuntarily saddled with thousands of dollars in debt, your credit score can be ruined, making it a lot harder to find a job, rent a home, or secure a loan. The CFPB’s proposed rule would help the millions of Americans with medical debt, and I’ll continue to push for my bipartisan legislation to protect patients from exploitative debt collection practices and bring some much-needed transparency to the industry.”

In July, Murphy introduced bipartisan legislation to strengthen consumer protections and improve transparency for medical debt practices.

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