Gov. Matt Meyer is working to finalize two of his proposals to provide medical debt relief for Delawareans.
It’s been two months since Gov. Meyer’s State of the State Address where he launched the concept of eliminating $50 million in medical debt for qualifying Delawareans.
That initiative would only cost the state around $500,000, but it is not included in the state’s fiscal year 26 budget as of now, which must be approved by the state legislature in just two weeks.
“[It's] a program that we're really, really interested in getting through the legislature and launching within weeks to eradicate medical debt for over 17,000 working Delawareans," Gov. Meyer explained. "There are thousands and thousands of Delawareans whose financial well-being, whose opportunity to purchase a home, to put food on the table for kids, to provide daycare and quality education for their children is limited, sometime prohibited, by medical emergencies."
If Gov. Meyer can secure the $500,000, a contracted nonprofit organization would use the money to enter voluntary agreements with providers and debt collectors to purchase the debt owed to them.
Individuals who are 400% below the federal poverty line or more or whose debt equates to 5% or more of their annual income would qualify for this relief.
The governor's office says it is continuing to work with Joint Finance and Bond Committee leadership on the best path forward.
Gov. Meyer also announced a desire for legislation that would ensure medical debt does not hurt someone’s credit score, which came to fruition just days ago under the sponsorship of State Sen. Spiros Mantzavinos (D-Elsmere).
“This is not about free healthcare or anything, but making sure that they are protected, their homes are protected, that if they need a payment plan that they get something that they can afford that's reasonable for them, that they're not hounded by debt collectors," Sen. Mantzavinos said.
The bill would prohibit the reporting of medical debt to consumer reporting agencies and prohibit any medical debt from being included on a consumer report.
This initiative was initially tackled at the national level under the Biden administration, but President Donald Trump has since stopped work at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which enforces the rule.
"The sheriff is out of town now. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is defunded... and we want to make sure that in the times that we're in, as people are facing challenges with healthcare, paying for healthcare and the potential cuts in Medicaid — again, people are protected," Sen. Mantzavinos added.
The bill cleared its committee hearing and heads to a vote in the full Senate.
