Biden administration bans medical debt from inclusion on credit reports

‘No one should be denied economic opportunity because they got sick or experienced a medical emergency,’ Kamala Harris said. Photograph: Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

Lenders will no longer be able to see whether American borrowers have unpaid medical debt in their credit history, according to a new rule from the outgoing Biden administration.

The vice-president, Kamala Harris, announced early on Tuesday that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) was removing $49bn of existing unpaid medical bills from the credit reports of 15 million Americans and will ban the inclusion of medical debt on credit reports.