‘It was life-changing:’ How new bill is helping Minnesota families eliminate medical debt

Minnesota Now

Monday afternoon Gov. Tim Walz will ceremonially sign a bill into law what’s known as the Minnesota Debt Fairness Act. Starting Oct. 1, the bill will ban medical providers from withholding care from patients with unpaid medical bills. It also requires that thousands of Minnesotans be forgiven medical debt that was transferred onto a spouse after death or whose bills have errors in them.

Two Minnesotans whose lives would have been deeply affected by medical debt joined MPR News host Cathy Wurzer. Denis St. Martin from Inver Grove Heights has a son whose medical care was paused after a coding error resulted in a $250,000 bill for their family. And Walt Myers was hit with a surprise $135,000 bill transferred from his wife’s hospice care after she passed away from breast cancer in 2019.