California's hospital bill caps kept vulnerable patients out of debt, raising credit scores

A 2007 California law capped how much hospitals could charge financially vulnerable patients. It turns out this law significantly reduced non-medical debt and improved credit scores for those patients.

Medical debt has been a major cause of personal bankruptcy and financial ruin in the US. This paper shows that a simple price cap on hospital bills can directly protect vulnerable people from that spiral. It means governments can directly improve financial well-being by limiting healthcare costs, rather than just subsidizing them.