Marshall Allen, a ProPublica investigative reporter who fought for the rights of patients facing unfair medical bills, died last May at age 52 from a heart attack. Allen approached his stories with the moral conviction that doctors, hospitals, drugmakers and insurers could be more transparent and humane. He first showed how a hospital system refused…
Reform #1. Resolve or Dismiss all medical debt lawsuits initiated by hospitals or collection agencies Medical debt — unlike home mortgages, student loans, and auto loans — is almost never truly voluntary. People who seek medical care are hurting; they come to the hospital on the worst days of their lives. It is immoral to…
Coerced debt is typically a form of family exploitation. It commonly begins with using a partner’s credit without their knowledge. One partner might buy items on Amazon.com using their partner’s credit card information stored in the computer. Or, someone might use a partner’s social security number and other personal information to take out a loan….
In recent years, there has been a widespread imposition of “stay-or-pay” contracts. These agreements force workers to compensate employers if they leave their job before a set time period. The contracts are called “TRAPS” – a Training Repayment Agreement Provision. Employers could legally require workers to pay “liquidated damages” for on-the-job training or use of…
Astra Taylor and Hannah Appel Astra Taylor is a filmmaker, writer, and political organizer. She often appears on Democracy Now and The Laura Flanders Show. Hannah Appel is co-founder of the Debt Collective and a professor of anthropology at UCLA. She is also a director of the Institute on Inequality and Democracy. Their joint article…
Charity is a good thing, and there will always be a role for it. However — voluntary donations cannot make up for our stingy healthcare system. When GoFundMe contributions provide care for a sick child, that does not excuse our country’s lack of national health insurance or paid sick leave. GoFundMe is currently bragging that…
The idea for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) originated in a paper that Elizabeth Warren wrote in 2007 while she was a law professor at Harvard. She moved to Washington after Dodd-Frank passed, to help then-President Obama get CFPB up and running. She touted it as a tool to protect average people from banks behaving badly. Obama…
For an individual or small business, the entire process of bankruptcy can be pretty horrific. You must deal with the shame, the harassing letters and phone calls, and the final court proceedings. This is clearly not true for certain investors and for large corporations… 1) They can use bankruptcy to escape lawsuits Bankruptcy has become…
Liberals often claim that the cure for crime is to expand social-welfare programs. They say we must first address economic exploitation, male and white supremacy, and homophobia in order to reduce violent crime. Other culprits for ‘mass incarceration’ include a biased legal system, early childhood mistreatment, and draconian drug enforcement. However — in the 1960’s,…
Debt vultures are nothing new in America – especially in health care. Collection firms can buy medical debts for pennies on the dollar, and then they try aggressively to collect the full amount. However, this ugly business model also operates on an international scale. I refer to the ‘Vulture funds’ — who have spent decades…