Shortly before Tyler Verrier turned 18 years old, a block of wood fell on his foot during an accident at home. He spent months receiving treatment and physical therapy for the injury.
Then he started to receive the bills. And then those bills got larger.
“The payment plan was outrageous,” said Verrier, who lives in Brookfield. “They wanted me to pay a couple hundred dollars a month on top of all the other bills I had already had. And I said it wasn’t doable. And they said, unfortunately, 'That’s all we can do for you.’”
It’s haunted him for the last three years. While he was in school to become a certified nursing assistant, his medical debt ballooned to more than $8,000.
In 2023, one in eight Massachusetts residents reported that their family had medical debt, according to the Center for Health Information and Analysis. And, like Verrier, most of those people (86%) incurred the debt while they had insurance coverage. Three-quarters of residents who reported medical debt said they were on the hook for the bill as part of their insurance plan deductible.
This week, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau finalized a rule to remove medical debt from consumer credit reports, which will take affect in about two months. Advocates say the change will make it easier for people to obtain jobs, access car loans and mortgages.
While Verrier’s medical debt never appeared on his credit report, he said the possibility was a constant worry.
“It could have ruined my entire life because I’m so young,” he said. “It’s so vital to have good credit while you’re young to build a sustainable future for yourself. And that thought always loomed in my head, that one day I’m going to wake up and it’s going to be on my credit report, and I’m going to be screwed.”
Eva Stahl, vice president of policy and programs at Undue Medical Debt, a national group that helps people struggling with their healthcare bills, said the new policy will be good for both people’s wallets and their mental health.
“We know that medical debt is not a debt of choice, right? It’s a debt of necessity,” said Stahl.
While advocates celebrated this week’s action to prohibit credit reporting of medical debt, they also stressed the importance of helping people avoid getting into debt in the first place.
Ashley Blackburn, senior director of policy and government relations at the nonprofit Health Care for All, said part of the problem is that consumers don’t have enough information about what a health care visit might cost.
This past November, the attorney general’s office released a report that included a review of hospital financial assistance policies, which found “significant variation” in how hospitals deem patients eligible — or ineligible — for discounts.
“If you walk in one hospital’s door in Massachusetts and then you cross the street and walk into another, you might face very different processes and eligibility thresholds to see if you’re even eligible for maybe waiving that bill or getting a discount on that hospital bill that you might owe,” Blackburn said.
To help with his medical debt, Verrier sought legal assistance through Health Law Advocates in Boston. He also hopes this week’s action is just the start of what’s to come.
“I hope that it’s the kind of advocacy that’s going to set [up help for] other young people who struggle with this same medical debt issue,” he said. “I hope it’s going to push them to a brighter future and not have to have them fight as hard as I’ve had to fight.”
