Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders is proposing to wipe out an estimated $81 billion in past-due medical debt. Up to 80 million Americans could be impacted.

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KATHLEEN HERZIG couldn’t walk 10 feet without becoming breathless. The 58-year-old blackjack dealer from Primm, Nevada, needed an aortic valve replacement in 2017 and wound end up staying in the hospital for over a month.

Herzig didn’t have health insurance through her job, and now she has over $600,000 in medical debt. “It’s horrible,” she said. “I’ve never been in debt.”

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Even with health insurance, the family was forced to take on more than $30,000 in medical debt, a balance they’ll never be able to pay, she said. That’s in large part because of their ongoing health expenses: Like many American households, they spend more than $20,000 a year on premiums and co-pays.

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https://www.cnbc.com/2019/10/12/sanders-wants-to-erase-medical-debt-what-that-would-mean-for-families.html