SPRINGFIELD – With Illinois residents facing skyrocketing health care costs and pressure on housing from property taxes and inflation, State Senator Graciela Guzmán has advanced legislation through the Senate to protect those burdened by health care debt from having a lien placed on their home during a health care debt collection.
“I condemn this practice of threating a family’s home because they are in medical debt,” said Guzmán (D-Chicago). “No person should have to go into medical debt in order to get the care they need in the first place, and placing a lien on that person’s home, that they have worked so hard for, is unacceptable.”
This bill came forward after the House sponsor heard from constituents affected by the acquisition of St. Margaret’s Hospital in Peru by OSF HealthCare. After that acquisition, families saw more aggressive medical debt collection practices, including liens on homes for medical debts sometimes as low as $2,000.
Guzmán’s legislation would prohibit liens from being placed on a person’s home during a health care debt collection action. For any legal action initiated against a patient for unpaid medical debt, the bill also prohibits hospitals from filing, or being granted, a lien against the primary residence of the patient.
According to the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, Black and Hispanic adults, women, those with lower incomes, and the uninsured are the most likely to have health care debt. As of 2021, the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services found that over 900,000 Illinoisans are uninsured.
“A lien may not always mean someone loses their home tomorrow, but it can cloud title, block refinancing, interfere with a future sale, and follow a family long after the medical crisis has passed.,” said Guzmán. “That is how a health crisis becomes a housing stability crisis.”
House Bill 4461 passed the Senate Executive Committee.
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