>I had an injury several years ago which effectively destroyed many of my teeth, and ended up more than $15,000 into debt over it. I couldn’t make my payments on time for probably a couple years, and even though I finally managed to pay it off, it’s a black spot on my credit history for years to come - through absolutely no fault of my own.
Medical debt is not weighted the same as consumer debt[1] and is not as ruinous as defaulting on a loan or credit card for many lenders. The newer scoring models also ignore paid collections. So, for many lenders there is no 'black spot' since you have paid it off. Even before the newer models came out, I knew people who ignored massive medical debt/collections when deciding to grant loan and rental approvals or not.
>and only serves the rich.
It serves the people who understand that a loan or credit card needs to be paid back per the terms of the contract. There are also financially educated/knowledgeable 'poor' people who understand this and have a good-excellent credit score, just as there are 'rich' people who never learned financial responsibility and have a terrible credit score. It serves the person with a good+ score.
This includes medical bills that are "absolutely no fault of [their] own", there are services that can help with payments, almost all lenders will work with someone on repayment if an effort is made to care to do so. Also, politics/opinions aside, refusing treatment or medical travel to a cheaper country is an option. Not a great one, but still an option.
Medical debt is not weighted the same as consumer debt[1] and is not as ruinous as defaulting on a loan or credit card for many lenders. The newer scoring models also ignore paid collections. So, for many lenders there is no 'black spot' since you have paid it off. Even before the newer models came out, I knew people who ignored massive medical debt/collections when deciding to grant loan and rental approvals or not.
>and only serves the rich.
It serves the people who understand that a loan or credit card needs to be paid back per the terms of the contract. There are also financially educated/knowledgeable 'poor' people who understand this and have a good-excellent credit score, just as there are 'rich' people who never learned financial responsibility and have a terrible credit score. It serves the person with a good+ score.
This includes medical bills that are "absolutely no fault of [their] own", there are services that can help with payments, almost all lenders will work with someone on repayment if an effort is made to care to do so. Also, politics/opinions aside, refusing treatment or medical travel to a cheaper country is an option. Not a great one, but still an option.
[1]:https://www.experian.com/blogs/ask-experian/medical-debt-and...