Monday, Assemblywoman Pilar Schiavo joined the Consumer Federation of California (CFC) and a bipartisan coalition of legislators to unveil a comprehensive nine-bill affordability package aimed at lowering everyday costs and protecting people from predatory practices.

Assemblywoman Schiavo is a key contributor to the package through her bill, The Healthcare Debt Protection Act (AB 2746).

The legislative package targets a wide range of issues impacting Californians, including predatory lending, hidden fees, and consumer fraud.

“People are being pushed to the brink by rising costs, powerful corporate monopolies and predatory financial practices. As a result, these higher prices are forcing them to make impossible choices between everyday needs like groceries, housing, and healthcare,” said Assemblywoman Schiavo. “My bill, along with this full legislative package, is about making life easier for people- and ensuring multi-billion dollar corporations can’t take advantage of people when they’re most vulnerable.”

The Healthcare Debt Protection Act closes a major loophole by prohibiting medical debt charged to so-called “medical credit cards” from appearing on patient’s credit reports, protecting their credit scores, and saving them from higher borrowing costs.

These medical credit cards are often marketed to patients during times of medical need, leading to unexpected high-interest debt that can damage long-term financial stability.

The nine-bill affordability package consists of the following:

•  AB 2746 (Schiavo) — medical credit card reforms
•  AB 1776 (Aguiar-Curry) — monopoly enforcement/COMPETE Act
•  SB 29 (Laird) — remedies for families seeking justice
•  SB 784 (Elena Durazo) — home improvement scams
•  SB 1007 (Menjivar) — HOA fee reforms
•  SB 1123 (Wiener) — “major regs” regulatory reform
•  AB 2076 (Lowenthal) — online marketplace safety
•  AB 2558 (Berman / Aguiar-Curry) — payday lending reform
•  AB 2629 (Chen) — consumer DMV upcharge cap

“This bipartisan affordability bill package is focused on reforming the various ways in which certain industries relish taking as much as they can out of consumers’ pockets by using every trick in the book,” said Robert Herrell, Executive Director of CFC. “Whether it is relief from junk and hidden fees to limiting predatory practices to cracking down on scams and fraud, every bill in this package shares the goal of helping consumers keep more in their pocketbook.

The package is supported by a broad coalition of consumer advocacy organizations, including Housing and Economic Rights Advocates (HERA), the California Nurses Association (CNA), the California Low Income Consumers Coalition (CLICC), and the Center for Responsible Lending (CRL), among others.

Ed. Note: The above information was provided to KHTS Radio by Schiavo’s Office.

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