Most Support Medical Debt Forgiveness: Survey

The majority of respondents to a new poll said they support the U.S. government’s forgiveness of medical debt.

According to the pollconducted by the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy and the Associated Press/NORC Research Center, 81% of respondents said medical debt forgiveness is important.

Just over 50 percent of respondents said that medical debt relief is extremely or very important — notably a higher percentage than those who said the same for student loan debt, small business loan debt or credit card debt. credit, according to the survey.

About 30% of respondents said medical debt forgiveness is an important issue and 19% said it is not important.

The survey also found that 56 percent of respondents favor medical debt forgiveness for people facing financial hardship.

Support for medical debt forgiveness is particularly high if someone has experienced fraud, according to poll results. Nearly two-thirds said they support forgiveness for people who have experienced health care fraud, such as improper billing for services.

Just over half, 56 percent, favor debt forgiveness for those who have large medical debts compared to their income and 59 percent favor debt forgiveness for people who have made on-time loan payments in recent years. two decades.

Approximately 26 percent of respondents said they themselves or a family member have medical debt.

In the years since the COVID-19 pandemic, a growing number of cities and states — including Connecticut, New York, New Orleans and Chicago — have implemented their own version of medical debt forgiveness, the Associated Press reported.

Last week, the Biden administration announced it would move forward with its plans to prevent medical debt from being included in credit scores.

“Medical debt makes it harder for millions of Americans to get approved for car loans, home loans or small business loans,” said Vice President Harris. “All of this, in turn, makes it harder to just survive, let alone progress. And that’s just not fair.”

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau previously reported that medical debt is one of the most common forms of debt represented on credit reports.

The latest survey was conducted between May 16 and 21 among 1,309 adults and has a margin of error of 3.7 percentage points.

This story originally appeared on thehill.com read the full story