According to website Truthout.org, the situation is so alarming that it prompted a group of senators to send a letter expressing their dismay to the CEOs of Wells Fargo and Synchrony Financial, two major medical credit card issuers.
The writ, signed by five lawmakers, including Vermont Independent Bernie Sanders, defines these financial instruments as predatory tools for patients in need of medical attention, further compelling them to pay “heavy debt and high interest.” .
“The concern here is that the current structure of our healthcare system often requires patients to make financial commitments in order to access the services they need,” the statement said.
In this context, congressmen warned, individuals are often coerced into using medical credit cards and then blocked despite the availability of alternative payment options that could be cheaper and offer lower interest rates.
According to Truthout.org, complaints about the damage this situation is causing are common, with no definitive solution for the affected Americans.
For example, he mentioned that in 2013, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau ordered CareCredit, Synchrony Financial’s medical lending business, to reimburse up to $34 million to “consumers who were victims of fraudulent credit card registration tactics.”
Last month, the same company Wells Fargo, which offers a medical credit card called Health Advantage, fined nearly $4 billion for a series of abuses, calling it “one of the most troublesome repeat offenders in US banks and credit unions.”
Incidentally, Senator Sanders, chairman of the Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, is a regular critic of the concept of medical debt, arguing that it shouldn’t exist.
“In the richest country in the history of the world, an illness should not ruin a family’s financial life and future,” he said, quoted by the newspaper.
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