Daniel Rosen breaks down how the CFPB banned medical debt from credit reports in January 2025, then reversed course five months later and sided with industry to kill its own rule. The agency then claimed federal law overrides fifteen state protections for medical debt.
Here's what's happening with that state law piece. The federal government tried to ban medical debt from credit reports entirely. It was a rule from the CFPB finalized back in January 2025. Industry groups sued almost immediately, and then this past July, under the new administration, the CFPB actually joined the plaintiffs and asked the court to throw its own rule out. The court agreed and vacated it completely. And then in October, the CFPB went even further. It issued a separate opinion— not a court ruling, but an agency opinion— arguing that federal law overrides those roughly 15 state medical debt protection laws altogether.
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