States Battle Over Medical-Debt Credit Protections

With the Trump administration declining to defend a late‑term CFPB regulation that would have removed medical debt from credit reports—and a federal judge in Texas vacating that rule—state capitols are now the primary battleground. Some states (including Maine this year) have passed bans or other limits on medical‑debt reporting and collections, while bills proposing similar protections failed in several conservative legislatures; an estimated 100 million Americans carry health debt and about 15 million would have benefited from the CFPB rule.