An Act To Establish The Medical Debt Relief Program

This bill establishes Maine's Medical Debt Relief Program to forgive medical debt for eligible residents. It directly affects Maine residents with federal adjusted gross income at or below 400% of the federal poverty level who owe medical debt that has been sold to collectors or is in collections. The program, administered by the Department of Professional and Financial Regulation, allows the state to purchase, cancel, or forgive qualifying debt. Crucially, forgiven debt will not be counted as taxable income for Maine state tax purposes. Residents receiving relief must be notified of the debt forgiveness.