Millions more Americans have medical debt than student debt. Where's their relief?
Millions more Americans have medical debt than student debt. Where's their relief? | Opinion
They can discharge it in bankruptcy. Next.
They didnt sign up for it, or benefit from it, unlike student loans. nExT
Yes and, not yes but. It’s long past time for a proper jubilee, anyway.
It would be interesting to see how much less medical debt there would be if there was better basic health coverage to have people more willing to address issues earlier. People would be avoiding getting early treatment due to unreasonable medical bills, meaning that by the time they are forced to get treatment the types of treatments and procedures they urgently required on an advanced ailment become exponentially more expensive.
I can’t fathom the notion that a private lender can profit from an individual attempting to get an education, and if they are unable to secure work in many instances the debt will still continue to grow. It is in the interest of these private lenders that people are unable to pay off debts to schedule. This how people get so far under water and despite best efforts never achieve a basic reasonable life.
Shouldnt the students that feel slighted go after the college then? Why let them off scot-free and force taxpayers to pay off the debt? Sue the college for false advertising which is pretty much what it was. Why go after the lenders? They didnt do anything wrong either. Its the colleges that started this mess with their ripoff prices, heavy handed sales pitches and false promises.
Yes, the fees the colleges are charging are ludicrous and this has created an opportunity for private lenders. I have no issue with my tax dollars funding a new generation of educated individuals as long as costs are actually fair and reasonable. This should not be up to each student to individually pursue. This is something a responsible federal government should be on top of if education is considered a priority.
They did benefit from it and one could argue did sign up for it, though obviously it would be disingenuous of me to attempt to equate the circumstances and urgency of healthcare decisions as compared to career and college decisions.
You are correct that they did benefit from it, pretty much any loan or debt did create some immediate benefit for the person that took on the debt. However, unlike college debt, I think it’s safe to say that people with medical debt didn’t sign up to be sick or have a major health issue. Totally different than college debt where people made a conscious decision to get an overpriced degree possibly in a field that doesn’t have any jobs available. That’s just called a bad decision and there is no argument as to why taxpayers should eat that debt.
There are plenty alternatives to college which can lead to great careers. Or, at least go to a community college and/or somewhere cheaper. But, nope, students voluntarily signed up for the loans and didn’t think it through. Sorry, you’ll have to pay that back. Get a second job like many people did before you and pay it down. Might suck for a while. Such is life.
I suspect most people would be far more open to medical debt being forgiven or at least rates dropped to zero than college debt. They aren’t even close to the same thing.
All debts need to be wiped clean and ursury outlawed.
Christians had something right.