Politics, Policy, and Poverty: Medical Debt and Other Financial Reforms

Representative Rashida Tlaib is an American politician and lawyer serving as the U.S. representative for Michigan’s 13th congressional district since 2019. The district includes the western half of Detroit, along with several of its western suburbs and much of the Downriver area. A member of the Democratic Party, Tlaib represented the 6th and 12th districts of the Michigan House of Representatives before her election to Congress. After serving, she worked at Sugar Law Center, a Detroit nonprofit that provides free legal representation for workers. In Congress, Tlaib is tackling one of the most significant drivers of poverty in our country – medical debt. With eight million Americans pushed into poverty due to medical expenses in 2018, Tlaib introduced The Consumer Protection for Medical Debt Collections Act (H.R. 2537), which would prohibit the collection of medical debt for two years, as well as debt from “medically necessary” procedures being included on one’s credit report. It passed the House in 2021 as part of a Comprehensive Debt Collection Act.

The talks, which are free and open to the public, will also be livestreamed on YouTube. U-M students can participate in the series as a one-credit course – look for it as SWK 503 section 001.