More things states did to make things suck less

Hey there —

We’re picking up on a series we started a few weeks ago, looking back — in a year when lots of things got bumpy — on things that states did in 2025 to make things suck at least a little less.

In red, blue, and purple states, governors signed bills aimed at protecting people from things like medical debt, insurance delays and denials, and corporate profiteering.

We’re highlighting a few examples — talking to the people who fought for these new laws about what they did, and what they learned.

Today’s stories bring us voices from states 3,000 miles apart — from the “Pine Tree” and “Beaver” states. (That’s Maine and Oregon, respectively, and yes, I googled that.)

We hope these stories give you energy and hope for the new year. (Or at least an interesting companion while you’re running holiday errands.)

And if you’re up for some dense-but-enlightening holiday reading, read on for links to detailed legal strategies behind these new laws.

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The fight to remove medical debt from credit reports

A year ago, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau was close to finalizing a federal rule to remove medical debts from credit reports nationwide.

Their argument: Medical debts don’t predict whether you’ll pay other bills. And, vitally: The threat of a ding to their credit rating could push folks to pay debts they really didn’t owe.

But shortly after the rule came out in January 2025, the Trump administration took office, basically shuttered the CFPB, and did very little to defend the rule against a collections-industry lawsuit aimed at killing it.

In the meantime, a half-dozen states added their own laws to wipe medical debts from credit reports. (A total of 15 states now have laws like these.)

Most of those states were solidly Democratic, but today’s episode looks at Maine, which is a little closer to “purple” on political maps. (Or as one Reddit user described it, “blurple.”)

In Maine alone, a survey revealed that half of the state’s 1.4 million residents had medical debt. That debt will stick around, but — thanks to the new law — will at least no longer prevent them from being able to rent an apartment or buy a car.

But some of these new laws — in Maine and elsewhere — are drawing legal challenges now, too.

And — in a complete reversal from the Biden administration’s position — Trump’s stripped-down CFPB issued new legal guidance in October, offering arguments to support those challenges.

But: Those arguments are weak, argues Chi Chi Wu — senior attorney for the National Consumer Law Center, who has been working on this issue for years.

She’s got a guide to crafting state laws (and tweaking existing ones) with an eye to beating potential legal challenges.

Oregon: No, corporations shouldn’t run medical practice

This story started with a paradox: Like a lot of states, Oregon already had a law forbidding the “corporate practice of medicine.”

And yet, as State Rep. Ben Bowman noticed, big companies kept buying up medical practices in the state. Which often means jacked-up prices and worse care.

Which raised two questions: How did that happen? And how could it be stopped?

He got answers in a New England Journal of Medicine article by a trio of researchers — two legal scholars and a physician and public-health researcher.

Then, he called those researchers and invited them to collaborate with him on writing a new law for Oregon.

It took two years to pass. Today’s episode walks you through the curious legal issues, the political maneuvering, and the public scandals that got Bowman’s proposal over the finish line this year.

Nerdy bonus: we hear how a lawsuit we covered in 2022 — ER doctors suing to kick private equity out of California hospitals — partly set the stage.

If you want an even deeper play-by-play of what happened in Oregon, the folks at Organized Money — a podcast about monopoly power that (of course) shares a lot of our interests — have you covered.

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Till next time,

— Dan