State Unit Leads Advocacy As Medical Debt Bills Advance To Indiana House

“State Unit Leads Advocacy As Medical Debt Bills Advance To Indiana House” refers to current efforts by Indiana health and consumer advocates to support new medical debt protection bills—most prominently Senate Bill 85 on health care debt and related House measures—as those bills move from the Senate to the Indiana House for further consideration.​

What is advancing in the Indiana House

• Senate Bill 85 on health care debt and costs has passed the Indiana Senate and is now moving to the House, which is the second chamber that must approve it before it can go to the governor.​

• House Bill 1051, which would exclude medical debt from credit scoring by prohibiting providers from furnishing that debt to consumer reporting agencies, is also part of the current session’s medical debt agenda.​

Key protections in Senate Bill 85

• SB 85 restricts how hospitals and collectors can go after unpaid medical bills, including prohibiting liens on a person’s primary home to collect medical debt.​

• It caps wage garnishment: individuals at or below 200% of the federal poverty level cannot have wages garnished for medical debt, and those above that level face a 10% cap on weekly wage garnishment.​

• Hospitals must offer income‑based payment plans to patients who meet certain guidelines, with the goal of ensuring people know about and can use structured repayment instead of facing aggressive collections.​​

Why advocacy and “state unit” involvement matter

• Indiana has an estimated more than 2 billion dollars in medical debt in collections, with about one in five residents carrying medical debt that has gone to collections, which gives advocacy groups and state health policy units a strong factual basis for pushing reforms.

• State-level health policy and consumer protection units, along with organizations focused on medical debt, have been coordinating testimony, “day of action” events, and targeted research since at least 2023–2025 to support bills that protect homes, wages, vehicles, and credit scores from the most harmful collection practices.​​

How this could affect Hoosiers

• If SB 85 and related bills become law, more than a million Indiana residents with medical debt could gain stronger protections against losing their homes or excessive wage garnishment, while still owing the underlying bills.​

• Combined with proposals like HB 1051 on credit reporting, these measures would aim to keep medical debt from ruining credit scores and financial stability, while encouraging clearer communication about payment plans and charity care.