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Senate Health Committee hears testimony on SB 85 to limit medical-debt garnishments and liens
Summary
Senate Bill 85 would require hospitals to offer payment plans for patients under income thresholds, narrow protections to medically necessary care, protect primary residences from liens, and limit wage garnishments for low-income Hoosiers. Supporters said debt forces patients to skip treatment; collection agencies and hospitals warned of practical and market consequences.
Senate Bill 85, a testimony-only measure to restrict some garnishments and liens for medical debt, received hours of testimony before the Senate Health Committee on Jan. 1, 2026.
Sponsor Senator Kidora described the bill as a calibrated response to widespread medical debt in Indiana and said it would add the attorney general as an enforcement mechanism for wage-garnishment and leave protections. "We estimate based on research that there are more than $2,000,000,000 worth of medical debt in the State of Indiana alone," he told the committee, and said the bill narrows protections to bills for "medically necessary procedures" and removes a previously proposed credit-reporting restriction because of pending federal litigation.
The bill would require hospitals to offer payment plans to patients with incomes up to 400% of the federal poverty level and would protect workers who earn less than 200% of the federal poverty level (about $31,000 a year for an individual, as cited by a testifier) from wage…
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