We just got a second notice for a ≈$20 bill that had been paid 3 months ago.
The first notice 3 months ago was for a procedure that was done 7 months prior.

It happens more often than you’d think. A friend of mine had a ~$25 medical bill go to collections. They just kept setting the mail out, filing it away each week, and forgetting about it. I ended up paying it and convinced them to get tested for ADHD. Sure enough…

It’s kinda simple: in large cities you can legit just change doctor office and leave behind <500$ per place and just not pay. Most doctor offices are franchised or opened by large hospitals, so the chances of fucking over an individual doctor is pretty slim. In my state, they drop calling after a while and it just disappears once they write it off.

I don't know much about this situation, but it sounds like the reporting agencies took away debt under $500, but the new ban is for any medical debt, not just the debt under $500.

To be clear, that took place last year. This latest move appears much wider-reaching and categorical to any unpaid medical bills. According to the article:

Unpaid medical bills will no longer appear on credit reports, where they can block people from mortgages, car loans or small business loans, according to a final rule announced Tuesday by the Biden administration.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau rule will remove $49 billion in medical debt from the credit reports of more than 15 million Americans, according to the bureau, which means lenders will no longer be able to take that into consideration when deciding to issue a loan.

That was what the credit reporting agencies did, not what the Biden administration just did.

Edit: I meant "credit reporting agencies" not "credit unions"

Someone didn't read the article.

The strategy that seems to work the best is just to never interact with the debt from the start, it becomes almost impossible for them to collect.

My strategy of literally ignoring collectors and sending all their calls to voicemail (for a surgery done in early 2023 in which I owed a couple thousand dollars) actually worked. I was called once a week or so for a little over a year and I haven't been contacted since June 2024.

I believe I was dinged on my credit score but the penalty was low single-digits, and it didn't affect my eligibility to buy a house. Your mileage will vary, and I definitely can't in good conscience recommend this as your first resort. Talk to a professional about risks and benefits of not paying certain debts if you can't or don't want to pay; some debts are not optional. But yeah, some are.

Yeah if that happened they'd just make it so it can be discharged through bankruptcy like student loans

Yeah they don't care. They didn't care last time and they won't this time.

Yeah but thats only like 15% of people who have voted.

35% of voters were always going to vote for Trump, they never hated him.

Yup. Americans are basically hamsters. Every day is a new day and you don't have to take the past into consideration. Just throw a dart at a board to decide your fate every day.