Efforts to combat medical debt stalled at PA Assembly, but one lawmaker remains optimistic

State Rep. Arvind Venkat remains optimistic that the PA General Assembly will combat medical debt in the next legislative session after efforts to combat it stalled over the past year. 

With the current legislative session winding down in the coming weeks, odds are dwindling for bills helping address Pennsylvanians’ medical debt issues, but that hasn’t dampened State Rep. Arvind Venkat’s (D-Allegheny) optimism that the legislature will revisit the issue again in January. 

Venkat, who was first elected in 2022, is the only practicing emergency room physician serving in the Pennsylvania General Assembly, and for him, fighting medical debt is a personal issue. 

“I have seen patients who have either gotten very ill or actually died from delaying care because of the medical debt they have, and it’s not something that I believe anyone should tolerate in our state or in our nation,” Venkat told The Keystone in a recent interview. 

“[Medical debt] is the leading cause of bankruptcy in the United States, and in Pennsylvania. It’s frankly concentrated among people who can least afford it. You’re talking about people who are either asset limited, constrained income people, or you’re talking about individuals who are uninsured, poorly insured, or even Medicaid.”

Last year, Pennsylvania House Democrats passed Venkat’s Medical Debt Relief Act, which would have helped Pennsylvanians that have a household income at or below 400% of the federal poverty guidelines or medical debt equal to 5% or more of that individual’s household income, by a bipartisan 114-89 vote, but the bill eventually stalled in the Republican controlled Senate. 

Then, Gov. Josh Shapiro renewed Venkat’s push for eliminating medical debt by setting aside funds in his proposed budget that would eliminate up to $400 million in medical debt.  

“As I’ve traveled across the Commonwealth, I’ve heard firsthand from Pennsylvanians who are struggling with high costs – including those being crushed by medical debt. Erasing medical debt is a practical, commonsense way that we can deliver real relief for folks all across Pennsylvania,” Shapiro said in a statement at the time.

However, those efforts to combat medical debt also stalled after the funding was stripped from the final budget. 

Venkat chalked it up to being a freshman member of the legislature, but he is thankful for the bipartisan support the issue has from Republicans in rural parts of the state. 

“Unfortunately, I’m a junior member of the legislature,” Venkat said. “It did not make it across the finish line in the state budget. I’m very grateful to my bipartisan colleagues in the house.”

“If I’m reelected this November, I will strongly push this again, and I believe that the governor will too.”