Friend, Working families are struggling with the high costs of basic needs including food, housing, utilities, and healthcare. We are already seeing many costs increase, putting more pressure on hard-working low-income households. We are working hard to protect patients over profits this legislative session. This morning, two of our priority bills to address medical debt passed out of the House. HB1020 sponsored by Del. Julie Palacovich-Carr will ban hospitals and outpatient providers as well as some healthcare credit cards from reporting medical debt to credit reporting agencies. Patients shouldn’t see their credit scores plummet because they or a loved one needed medical assistance. HB268 sponsored by Del. Lorig Charkoudian will ban hospital debt lawsuits that are $500 or below; establish statewide standards for charity care for working families, and create more notice and transparency about the availability of charity care and income-based payment plans. Read more about the bill here. Senate Finance will be voting on SB981, sponsored by Sen. Steve Hershey THIS AFTERNOON. SB981 is the crossfile of HB268 We need YOUR emails and calls NOW and over the next four hours to make sure that SB981 passes out of Senate Finance with no new amendments. We also need you to ask to put SB614 sponsored by Sen. Clarence Lam on on the Senate voting list and vote YES with no weakening amendments. Will you take 3 minutes to send three messages? In Solidarity, Marceline White P.S. As consumer protections are being rolled back across the country, Economic Action is standing up and fighting for Maryland consumers. We need your support to continue to advocate for working families. Our 25th anniversary is coming up! If you like the work that we do, please donate $25, $250, $2500 to celebrate our upcoming 25th anniversary and support our work during this challenging time. | 
