Skip to main content
Georgia Public Broadcasting Logo
  • Watch

    Featured Specials and Programs

    • All Creatures Great and Small
    • Antiques Roadshow
    • PBS News Hour
    • Miss Scarlet & The Duke
    • Finding Your Roots
    • Doc Martin
    All Programs

    GPB Originals

    • Georgia Legends
    • Lawmakers
    • A Fork in the Road
    • View Finders
    • Georgia Outdoors
    • Your Fantastic Mind
    GPB Originals

    Browse by Genre

    • Arts & Music
    • Culture
    • Drama
    • Food
    • History
    • News & Public Affairs
    • TV Schedule
    • GPB Programs
    • PBS Passport
    • TV Highlights this Week
    • PBS KIDS
    • Ways to Watch
    • Newsletters
    • Contact GPB
  • Listen

    Featured Programs

    • The Daily
    • Morning Edition
    • All Things Considered
    • Serendipity
    • John Lemley's City Cafe
    • Fresh Air
    • Here and Now
    • Code Switch/Life Kit
    • Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!
    All Programs

    Podcasts

    • GA Today
    • Salvation South
    • Battleground: Ballot Box
    • Football Fridays in Georgia
    • Narrative Edge
    • Peach Jam Podcast
    • A Fork in the Road
    • Radio Schedule
    • GPB Classical
    • Radio Programs
    • Podcasts
    • GPB News
    • Find Your Station
    • Ways to Listen
    • Contact GPB
    • Newsletters
  • Learn

    Featured

    • Chemistry Matters
    • Classroom Conversations Podcast
    • GASHA Go! World
    • Georgia Farmcraft®
    • Georgia Classroom
    • Georgia Studies Collection
    • Econ Express
    • Let’s Go Enviro
    • Let's Learn GA!
    • Lights, Camera, Budget!
    • Live Explorations
    • Physics in Motion
    • School Stories
    • Virtual Field Trips
    • VR in the Classroom
    • Writers Contest

    For Kids & Teachers

    • GPB Games
    • PBS KIDS
    • PBS LearningMedia

    • on Twitter
    • on Facebook
    • on Email
  • News

    Featured Programs & Series

    • Lawmakers
    • Lawmakers: Beyond the Dome
    • 1A
    • Battleground: Ballot Box
    • GA Today Podcast
    • Storycorps
    • Narrative Edge

    More GPB News

    • Politics
    • Georgia News
    • Justice
    • Arts & Life
    • Health
    All GPB News
    • Radio Schedule
    • Radio Stations
    • GPB Apps
    • Podcasts
    • Contact GPB News
    • Follow Us on Apple News
    • Newsletters
  • Sports

    GHSA Sports

    • Football
    • Basketball
    • Cheerleading
    • On Demand
    • GPB Sports Blog
    All Sports

    High School Football

    • Scores & Schedule
    • On Demand
    • Teams
    • Rankings
    • Brackets
    • Heads Up Georgia
    Football Home
    • GPB Sports App
    • GPB Sports Blog
    • GPB Sports OnDemand
  • Events

    Browse by Type

    • Community
    • Donor
    • Kids & Family
    • Screenings
    All Events

    Browse by Category

    • Education
    • News
    • Sports
    • Television

    Sign up to receive GPB Event announcements via Email.

    Sign up

    • on Twitter
    • on Facebook
    • on Instagram
  • Kids & Families

    For Kids

    • Video
    • Games

    For Parents & Caregivers

    • Kids & Families Blog
    • Kids & Families Events
    • GPB KIDS - Ways to Watch
  • Support Us

    Support GPB

    • Ways to Give
    • Planned Giving
    • Sustainers
    • GPB Passport
    • Leadership Giving
    • Corporate Sponsorship
    • Vehicle Donations
    • GPB Next
    • Matching Gifts
  • Search
GPB Passport icon GPB Passport icon Passport
GPB donate icon GPB donate icon Donate
Listen Live Listen Live Watch Live Watch Live

GPB Newsletter CTA

Sign Up For Our Newsletter

News Topics

  • Georgia
  • National
  • Politics
  • Lawmakers
  • Elections

Don't Miss

Don't Miss:

  • Support GPB Today
  • Podcast: Manufacturing Danger: The BioLab Story
  • TV Highlights This Week

News Articles: medical debt

Undue Medical Debt is retiring $30 billion in unpaid medical bills for 20 million people.

Tagged as: 

  • Health

Major deal wipes out $30 billion in medical debt. Even backers say it's not enough

Undue Medical Debt is retiring unpaid medical bills for 20 million people. The debt trading company that owned them is leaving the market.

April 05, 2025
|
By:
  • Noam Levey
Doctors in New York will have to discuss treatment costs upfront with patients under a new law.

Tagged as: 

  • Health

A law in New York pushes doctors to be upfront about patients' costs

The law originally banned health care providers from forcing patients to agree to pay medical bills, no matter the cost. Consumer groups say an amended version doesn't go far enough.

March 17, 2025
|
By:
  • Michelle Andrews
People hold up signs before Republican presidential nominee, former U.S. President Donald Trump holds a campaign rally Nov. 4, 2024 in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Tagged as: 

  • Health

Some Trump voters want him to rein in health care costs. It's unclear if he will

In polls and focus groups, Trump voters say they want the government to do something about big medical bills. It's a big change from 5 years ago, pollsters say, and may not be on Trump's agenda.

February 26, 2025
|
By:
  • Noam Levey
A stethoscope sits on a pile of U.S. bank notes.

Tagged as: 

  • Health

New rules will ban medical debt from your credit report

The move, which comes less than two weeks before President-elect Donald Trump is set to take office, represents a challenge to the new administration.

January 07, 2025
|
By:
  • Noam Levey
Alexandra Vazquez works in the Phifer factory, a window screen manufacturer outside Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

Tagged as: 

  • Health

These factory workers were swamped by medical debt. Then their employer stepped in

A decades-old manufacturing company opened a clinic and made primary care and prescriptions free for employees and their families.

September 18, 2024
|
By:
  • Noam Levey
A proposed new rule would ban medical debt from credit reports.

Tagged as: 

  • Health

Biden administration announces a plan for removing medical debt from credit reports

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau released proposed federal regulations that would prevent unpaid medical bills from being counted on consumers’ credit reports.

June 13, 2024
|
By:
  • Noam Levey
Medical debt is as much a hallmark of having children as long nights and dirty diapers. The Crivilare family, Andrew, Heather and Rita, 2, are pictured at their kitchen table in Jacksonville, Ill.

Tagged as: 

  • Health Care

Their first baby came with medical debt. These Illinois parents won't have another.

Millions of new parents in the U.S. are swamped by medical debt during and after pregnancy, forcing many to cut back on food, clothing, and other essentials.

May 09, 2024
|
By:
  • Noam Levey
Rohit Chopra, director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, is working toward regulation to remove medical bills from consumer credit reports.

Tagged as: 

  • Health

Why a financial regulator is going after health care debt

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, created after the Great Recession of 2007-09, has increasingly started policing the health care system.

March 01, 2024
|
By:
  • Noam Levey
Cook County board president Toni Preckwinkle (center) announces the county's debt relief program, along with executives from several local hospitals and Allison Sesso, President & CEO of RIP Medical Debt (far left).

Tagged as: 

  • Health

A growing wave of local governments are erasing billions in medical debts

New York City joined other localities this week in pledging to buy up and forgive residents' unpaid medical bills. The trend started in Cook County, Ill., and is spreading around the country.

January 24, 2024
|
By:
  • Yuki Noguchi
McAlester Regional Health Center's administrative offices in McAlester, Oklahoma.

Tagged as: 

  • Health

In this Oklahoma town, almost everyone knows someone who's been sued by the hospital

U.S. hospitals face growing scrutiny over aggressive debt collection tactics. At one community hospital, few patients get financial aid when they can't afford to pay. Many more are taken to court.

January 19, 2024
|
By:
  • Mitchell Black and
  • Noam Levey
Gregory says his wife would never have imagined the impact her fund would have.

Tagged as: 

  • Health

Before dying, she made a fund to cancel others' medical debt — nearly $70M worth

Casey McIntyre decided she wanted her legacy to be clearing medical debt. But her husband says they never dreamed it would get this big.

November 28, 2023
|
By:
  • Manuela López Restrepo
Georgia in Play 11_3

Tagged as: 

  • News

Georgia in Play: Lawmakers to redraw Georgia's voting maps; forgiving medical debt; Michelin's best

This week on Georgia in Play, host Leah Fleming looks at Georgia's impending redistricting. Plus, conversations with Savannah Mayor Van Johnson and Hidden Brain's Shankar Vedantam. We'll also look at a church's medical debt forgiveness ministry, the new Michelin Guide to Atlanta, and top bookstores around the state.

November 03, 2023
|
By:
  • Leah Fleming and
  • Chase McGee
Kayce Atencio, who has been shadowed by medical debt for most of his adult life, had been unable to rent an apartment because of poor credit due to medical debt, he said. Recent reporting changes by credit rating agencies have removed many debts from consumer credit reports and lifted scores for millions, a new study finds.

Tagged as: 

  • Health

As some medical debt disappears from Americans' credit reports, scores are rising

Credit rating agencies have removed small unpaid medical bills from consumer credit, and some people are seeing their credit scores improve, a new study finds.

November 02, 2023
|
By:
  • Noam Levey
Health advocates and community members gathered in Washington D.C. in mid September to push the Biden administration to take additional action on medical debt in an event hosted by nonprofit Community Catalyst.

Tagged as: 

  • Health

Medical debt could soon be barred from ruining your credit score

The Biden administration unveiled regulations that potentially would help tens of millions of people who have medical debt on their credit reports.

September 22, 2023
|
By:
  • Noam Levey
Kayce Atencio, who had a heart attack when he was 19, was unable to rent an apartment for years because of bad credit attributed in part to thousands of dollars of medical debt. "It always felt like I just couldn't get a leg up," says Atencio, one of millions of Americans whose access to housing is threatened by medical debt.

Tagged as: 

  • Health

Medical debt nearly pushed this family into homelessness. Millions more are at risk

Saddled with debt from health care, many Americans are forced into painful tradeoffs. And some are losing their homes.

September 11, 2023
|
By:
  • Noam Levey
  • Load More

Newsletter Signup

Sign Up For Our Newsletters

Connect with GPB

  • Connect with GPB on Facebook
  • Connect with GPB on Instagram
  • Connect with GPB on Twitter
  • Connect with GPB on YouTube
  • Connect with GPB on Apple News

Footer

Footer First Nav (Main Menu)

  • Watch
  • Listen
  • Learn
  • News
  • Sports
  • Events
  • Kids & Families
  • Support Us
  • Search

Footer Second Nav Menu

  • Help Center
  • About GPB
  • Contact Us
  • Closed Captioning
  • Directions
  • Studio Production
  • Program Submissions

Footer Third Nav Menu

  • Support Us
  • Careers
  • Accessibility
  • FCC Public Files
  • Drawing Rules
  • News Media Request
  • Open Records and Document Retention Policy
  • Privacy Policy

Georgia Public Broadcasting

260 14th St. NW
Atlanta, GA 30318
United States

(404) 685-2400 In Atlanta
(800) 222-4788 Outside Atlanta
ask@gpb.org

Newsletter Signup

Sign Up For Our Newsletters

Connect with GPB

  • Connect with GPB on Facebook
  • Connect with GPB on Instagram
  • Connect with GPB on Twitter
  • Connect with GPB on YouTube
  • Connect with GPB on Apple News
© Copyright 2025, Georgia Public Broadcasting. All Rights Reserved. Georgia Public Radio® GPTV®