Medical debt bankruptcy gets new protections for homes and credit.
H.R. 9670 — Medical Bankruptcy Fairness Act of 2026 · Filed by Steve Cohen (D-TN) · 1 cosponsor · Introduced Jul 14, 2026 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill creates a new bankruptcy type for people hurt by medical bills. It covers people who paid more than 10% of income in medical bills over three years. It also covers people who lost work due to illness or caregiving. The bill lets people keep up to $250,000 in home equity. It skips some bankruptcy paperwork and removes the bankruptcy from credit reports faster.
Who it affects
People facing bankruptcy from medical debt or lost work from illness gain new protections. Bankruptcy courts will handle more cases with new rules. Lenders may change how they decide who gets credit.
One thing to notice
The bill removes medical bankruptcies from credit reports. This may make it harder for lenders to know who is risky to lend to.
From the analysis of the bill text, linked under Primary records below.
Where it stands
1 cosponsor: 1 Democrats.
- Jul 14, 2026 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Jul 14, 2026 — Referred to House Committee on Financial Services and House Committee on the Judiciary · Congress.gov: “Referred to the Committee on the Judiciary, and in addition to the Committee on Financial Services, for a…”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Words to know
- bankruptcy — A legal process when a person cannot pay debts. A court helps decide what gets paid and what gets forgiven.
- home equity — The part of a home a person owns outright after subtracting what they still owe on a mortgage.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (5,572 characters) on Jul 25, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 14,707 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
As of — page rendered 2026-09-23.
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