Still confident that the Supreme Court will rule in its favor on the plan to cancel up to $20,000 of student loan debt, the White House announced today that it was moving forward with the next phase of its plan to help overburdened consumers — by wiping out their medical debts.
The Executive Order from President Biden will empower the Department of Health and Human Services to forgive any and all medical debts for individuals living in the United States, regardless of age or income level. The announcement follows an intensive lobbying effort by a large number of consumer advocacy groups to get the federal government to take steps toward reducing the medical debt problem across America. Currently, about one-third of Americans are carrying some amount of unpaid medical debt and 80% of medical debt is held by households with negative net worth.
To access a copy of the Executive Order, please click here.
“For too long, consumers have been the butt of a massive joke that saddles them with excessive amounts of medical debt,” said April Phoole, the executive director of Get Out of The Costly Healthcare Abyss (GOTCHA), an advocacy group that has been leading the charge, in a statement. “Well, now the joke is on everyone else who has been profiting off the backs of everyday consumers for too long. All joking aside, any fool could see this coming.”
Under the provisions of the order, consumers will work with their healthcare providers to document their unpaid debts, which will be turned over to HHS. The government is even taking the extra step of obtaining a waiver from the Internal Revenue Service so that consumers will not have to report the canceled debts on their income tax returns.
Republicans are expected to blast the announcement and mount legal challenges similar to what was done when the student loan program was announced. The announcement was timed to coincide with a decision by the three major credit reporting agencies to remove certain medical debts from consumers’ credit reports.
“A fool and his money are soon parted, the saying goes,” said President Joe Biden, in a statement. “Well, who’s the fool now?”
EDITOR’S NOTE: This article is not real. It is an April Fool’s Day prank. I hope you enjoyed it.
Dang it! You almost got me again! I was halfway through the article and wondering where I was gonna find a job before I realized it was sent on April Fools Day! Phew!