America is an outlier among advanced nations regarding health care. It is far more expensive here, and individuals bear a bigger share of the cost than in other wealthy nations. The United States is the only advanced nation that punishes its citizens with massive medical debt for acquiring treatment.

According to the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation, Americans owe more than $195 billion in medical debt; 16 million owe at least $1,000 and 3 million owe $10,000 or more. Medical debt is the leading cause of personal bankruptcies and, according to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, it is more than half of all debt recorded on consumer credit reports.

And as noted by Democratic state Rep. Arvind Venkat of Pittsburgh, the only physician in the state Legislature, untold numbers of would-be patients defer or don’t seek treatment to avoid the expense.

He, with Democratic Reps. Bridget Kosierowski of Lackawanna County and Tarik Khan of Philadelphia — the two nurses in the Legislature — have introduced a bill to help mitigate medical debt.

It’s modeled on Pittsburgh’s RIP Medical Debt Program, which uses $1 million in city and donated money to buy bundled medical debt at steep discounts. Pittsburgh has estimated that it will retire $115 million of medical debt for 24,000 residents for that $1 million.

Venkat’s bill proposes a modest state contribution of $15 million. He estimates that the program could retire $1.15 billion of medical debt for thousands of Pennsylvanians. Lawmakers should pass the bill to help heal an unfair system.

— The Citizens’ Voice, Wilkes-Barre via TNS