Sponsor
John Neely Kennedy
Senator · R-LA
Senator · R-LA
The bill protects people with medical debt from credit-report discrimination and stigma, improving access to credit, housing, and employment, at the cost of shifting risk- assessment burdens onto lenders (and potentially other borrowers/taxpayers) and creating privacy and compliance challenges.
People with medical debt (especially low-income, uninsured people, and patients with chronic conditions): removing medical-debt information from consumer reports improves creditworthiness and can increase access to loans, mortgages, and rental housing.
People with medical debt (patients with chronic conditions and low-income renters/job applicants): fewer adverse entries on consumer reports reduces barriers in tenant screening and employment background checks.
Consumers with medical bills (patients and uninsured individuals): keeping medical-collection details out of public consumer reports reduces stigma and gives people greater control over how medical billing affects their financial record.
Borrowers and taxpayers: lenders may respond by tightening underwriting or shifting to other risk factors, which could reduce credit availability or raise borrowing costs for some people and increase prices for consumers.
Creditors and other data users: loss of a medical-debt indicator may increase underwriting uncertainty and administrative costs as firms adjust models and pricing to account for missing information.
People with medical debt (patients and uninsured individuals): consumer reporting agencies may still collect and retain medical-debt records outside credit reports, creating ongoing privacy, breach, or secondary-use risks if those records are sold or exposed.
Based on analysis of 3 sections of legislative text.
Excludes adverse medical debt from consumer reports and requires the CFPB to bar creditors from using medical-debt information in credit decisions within one year.
Official title: Amend the Fair Credit Reporting Act to prohibit the inclusion of medical debt on a consumer report, and for other purposes.
Introduced May 21, 2026 by John Neely Kennedy · Last progress May 21, 2026
Removes adverse medical debt from consumer credit reports and directs the CFPB to prohibit creditors from obtaining or using medical-debt information when deciding to extend credit. Consumer reporting agencies may still collect and keep medical-debt data, but they cannot include adverse medical-debt entries in consumer reports; the CFPB must adopt a regulation within one year that stops creditors (as defined under existing law) from using medical debt in underwriting and credit decisions.