Governor Hochul: “We're banning opportunistic drug makers from jacking up prices to gouge prices at a time when people need some release. We're tackling automatic renewals from hidden credit card fees that quietly siphon money out of your bank account when you're doing something else. And also, the money goes from your bank account into the coffers of the big corporations because they know they can take advantage of you.”
Hochul: “I'm signing a bill that bans hospitals, health care providers, and ambulances from reporting medical debt to your credit agencies. Let's take that right off. That will not be factored in there. That's going to be, people can focus on getting healthier and not focus on whether or not someone's going to catch you and trap you and make you spiral even more, so that's what we're talking about. We're just the second state in the nation to do this. I'm proud of that. New York leads, the others will follow.”
Earlier today, Governor Hochul signed legislation to protect New York consumers from medicine price-gouging and ongoing financial consequences related to medical debt. Additionally, the Governor signed bills what will curb predatory subscription services, and confusion over the price of many goods and services. Legislation S.608-C/A.5653-B prohibits the sale of medicine for an unconscionably excessive price throughout a drug shortage. Legislation S.4907A/A.6275A prohibits hospitals, health care professionals and ambulances from reporting medical debt to credit agencies. Legislation S.5941B/A.3245D requires companies to notify customers of automatic subscription renewals and to provide clear instructions for canceling said services. Legislation S.1048A/A.2672B clarifies that merchants must post the highest price a consumer might pay for a product, regardless of payment methods.
VIDEO of the event is available on YouTube here and in TV quality (h.264, mp4) format here.
AUDIO of the Governor's remarks is available here.
PHOTOS of the event will be available on the Governor's Flickr page.
A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks is available below:
First of all, we are here today for one reason, not the least of which it's very close for me to come to for my office, but I'm here to say thank you. This is a season we reflect back on many of our blessings, and we are so blessed that since 1843, there has been an organization that attracts a team as well as volunteers, the Community Service Society, and just helping people overcome life's hardness and giving people a shot to say, “you're going to be okay.”
And so, I'm grateful there's people that are so selfless and so caring of their fellow brother and sister that they would be part of this organization and of course they would, they are great partners with the State. We need something done. We need to have a call center set up for people to know whether they're going to be off the Medicaid rolls because of the pandemic changes and what happened and why.
We need to know that there's a place they can call and get an answer. And this is that place. So, I want to give all of you a round of applause for what you do for us.
And David Jones as leader and our chairman of the board and everyone else associated with— we are thankful. That there's people like you who do stand up. I also do want to recognize Beth Finkel here today. When I need someone who can be the voice of people that are my age, I call on Beth Finkel in her age to as the New York State Director of AARP, which is an organization that is synonymous with fighting for people and getting them what they deserve in life and as they, particularly as they age. And so thank you, Beth, for all you do for us.
And you're going to be hearing shortly from Anthony Calafiura. Is that how you get it right? Calafiura? Did I get it close enough? Anthony is going to tell you a story of what it's like to be a student and have to deal with medical debt. And so, these are the people that we're fighting here today.
Also, we have our great leaders in our State Legislature. These are their bills. I have to give credit where credit is due. They come up with them, they sometimes hold hearings, they work with their staffs, they work with the advocates. And I'm so sorry Elizabeth can't be here today. Let's give another round of applause for Elizabeth. The Chair of the Health Committee, Senator Gustavo Rivera, thank you for being such a great champion. Julia Salazar, always grateful for the vision that you bring representing not just your district, but also the people of this State and Amy Paulin, Assemblymember, one of our bill sponsors. Thank you.
These are the people who care so much. And Karines Reyes, Assemblymember, who's actually a registered nurse. So, we've done a lot together because she has seen firsthand the challenges that people have. I'm grateful to Marjorie Velázquez, also Councilmember, Chair of the Consumer Protection Committee. I want to thank her for her leadership. And of course, it’s always nice to have the voice of experience who served in office, I believe 50 years, Dick Gottfried, is that accurate? 52 and a member of the CSS board, so it's great to see you. But in a couple of minutes, we're going to be signing bills that will target it for one reason, to lift the crushing burden of debt off our fellow New Yorkers, and it weighs them down heavily.
We're banning opportunistic drug makers from jacking up prices to gouge prices at a time when people need some release. We're tackling automatic renewals from hidden credit card fees that quietly siphon money out of your bank account when you're doing something else. And also, the money goes from your bank account into the coffers of the big corporations because they know they can take advantage of you.
And we think about taking together all these protections will help shield New Yorkers from predatory practices. There are literally people who are conspiring against your pocketbook and to help you not get a better chance at life, but to help you go further into debt and that's what we're talking about.
And the stress that this causes for people – you think about, a mother sitting in a parking lot, deciding whether she should take her child into an emergency room or not. Is she going to be able to pay for this? Is she going to be straddled with debt? The level of stress this causes, think about an elderly citizen who's taking their prescription drugs, opens up the bottle, empties it on the table, and cuts the pill in half to make sure it can last. This is what people are doing, not in other countries, but this is happening in America today. And that's what we're fighting here against.
And we have actually 340,000 New Yorkers who are struggling with medical debt right now. That's large in the entire population of my hometown on the other side of the State. That's how many people there are that are dealing with this every single day. Medical debt is such a vicious cycle. It truly hits low-income earners, but it forces them to stay low-income earners because they can never get out from under it.
And that's what we're talking about, and it starts unexpectedly. No one thinks, “Oh, I think I'm going to get sick this year and run into debt. I'm going to need major surgery to stay alive,” no one thinks like that. It happens to everybody. But if you've got money in your bank account, you're going to be okay.
If you have a really good insurance program that doesn’t ask a lot of questions and covers everything – out of network service as well, you're okay. But so many New Yorkers don't have that luxury. They don't have that. And to me, that's just a basic human right to have the ability to get health care without sliding into crushing debt.
So, that's what we're talking about. No one plans to go into an emergency room, no one plans to break a leg. I broke a few ribs and two wrists my first year as Lieutenant Governor. I didn't plan for that. I walked around with a cast on for a long time, or a chronic illness. Like I said, the copays can sometimes be so much as well. So, hospitals sometimes will offer you a medical credit card. Oh, that sounds nice. A nice credit card from the hospital, the people are taking care of me. But the payments are so high. And pretty soon, unbeknownst to you, you fall in the debt, and you have a black mark on your credit report.
So, that's when you start spiraling. Prospective landlords aren't going to call you back when they see that, right? You're trying to be able to rent a place, maybe get a little bigger place, you got a family. The bank won't give you a car loan, if you don't live close enough to public transportation. You want to get a cell phone; cell phone companies are looking at your debt and they can turn you away as well. Even a prospective employer, you want to get a new job but you're in debt, you’re like, I didn't know I was in such debt. I didn't know this illness was going to happen. I didn't know this would be a mark on my life forever.
So, it's really hard for people and what I want to do is talk about how we get them out of it because it's wrong on so many levels. In your credit score, we're talking about medical debt and some of the practices of unscrupulous businesses. Your credit score is supposed to measure how responsible you are with your money. It's an arbitrary way, but they'll say if you have a good credit score, that means you manage your money well, that we’ll let you take out loans. But it's not based on adjusting for life's realities. It wasn't mismanagement or a character flaw that brought you to this place. It's just expenses you didn't count on in life. How could you have budget for something that's unforeseen?
That's what we're talking about, how to get out from under that debt. And it can happen to any of us, but again, as I said, some of us have an easier chance of getting out of it. And debt collectors know you're afraid of them. They know you're afraid, and they will haunt you. They will stalk you. They'll call you in the middle of the night. They'll sometimes see you in a public place. They're out there to get you, and that is just adding more misery to existing misery. And that's all consuming, and it's frightening for people. And sometimes they just strong arm you, and I want to correct that system. A system that preys on people who are in pain and in desperate need of care.
So, I'm signing a bill that bans hospitals, health care providers, and ambulances from reporting medical debt to your credit agencies. Let's take that right off. That will not be factored in there. That's going to be, people can focus on getting healthier and not focus on whether or not someone's going to catch you and trap you and make you spiral even more, so that's what we're talking about. We're just the second state in the nation to do this. I'm proud of that. New York leads, the others will follow.
So, this is an extraordinary opportunity, and it builds on a bill I signed last year that prevents hospitals and nursing homes from putting liens on your homes. Can you imagine that? And thank you, thank you for the leadership of getting that through as well, the legislature, our Senators, and Assemblymembers.
And garnishing, they garnish your wages over medical debt. Again, think about this scenario. You are sick. You lost time off work, you may or may not get back, so you don't have the source of income, you run into debt, and then how do you get out from under it? Oh, by the way, they're also going to garnish your wages. That's a big word for saying we're taking your money, okay? They're taking your money. So, how are you going to get ahead?
And when you think about the crushing debt on people, it's college loans, it's credit card debt, and also medical debt as well. And also, let's talk about those opportunistic drug suppliers. Oh, they are something else. You're laughing because you've seen what they would do. And they'll manipulate and overcharge customers for medicine, especially when there's a shortage. That's about as low as it gets, in my opinion. People stay alive because of these drugs that are available, but all of a sudden, a lot of people want them, so there's a shortage. So, instead of going and making more. Now let's just charge more for what we have so we can bring in the same profits and not really care about the people that are saying, “What do you mean it costs that much? A year ago, it cost this and now it costs this much more.”
We're just stressing out people all the time here. Come on, let's give everybody a break. And Big Pharma might call that the invisible hand of the free market where they can do what they have to do. We have two other words for it. We call it price gouging.
A year ago, it cost this and now it costs this much more. We're just stressing out people all the time here. Come on let's give everybody a break. And big pharma might call that the invisible hand of the free market where they can do what they have to do. We have two other words for it. We call it price gouging.
That is price gouging here in the state of New York. And I'm signing a bill today that bans the sale of medicine at unconscionably excessive prices during a drug shortage, as defined by the FDA. So, there's a shortage. There's a shortage. You're saying there's a shortage? Okay, but you can't jack up the prices because you're hurting the people that we're fighting for every single day.
Two other bills I'll be signing today plug in key consumer protection gaps. They don't, they're not as egregious as the medical debt, but over time, it just keeps adding up and up. And they found out, a study that was done by Chase Bank found that 71 percent of Americans waste over $50 a month on unwanted subscription fees that you may have signed up for, may have been a promotion.
Say, oh, for a dollar a year, you can get this subscription, and all of a sudden, you're paying 300 a year after that. It happens all the time. It happens to everyone. And two thirds forget a recurring payment, guess what, they're going to a debt as well. We've seen it. You see that random charge on your credit card?
Who has time to take a half a day off work, because I've tried this, to try and call somebody to get the bill taken off because I don't even remember signing up for that. Maybe I wanted to watch Disney Plus for a day to watch Hamilton when it first came out. I don't want to watch Disney Plus anymore. They're great people, great shows. Maybe when my granddaughter gets older, but I'm not using it right now, and I'm still paying for Disney Plus, because I don't know how to stop it. No offense to Disney Plus. It's a great program, and Hamilton was fabulous, but a lot of people are in that situation.
It takes a lot of time and effort to say, I'm done with this, or it was supposed to be a trial period. I want the trial to end, but they make it so hard, right? It's intentionally designed to be hard, so the money keeps going to them and out of your pockets. The automatic renewal has to stop, and they have to notify you, we're saying, okay, how about letting people know before, when it's a 10 day free trial and all of a sudden you're paying $51 for three months and then it keeps going up and then an automatic renewal is now $73 a month.
This is YouTube TV I'm talking about. This is real. So, the tech giants, uh, we love what they do. We want them to change their practices. Okay, we want, we're happy they're here. Be prosperous. Give us more content. It's great. Give us more subscriptions, more shows to watch. But I think ultimately people are counting on you to lose track and to forget about it. And that's built into the business model, and they make it intentionally hard to cancel. Look at what everyone did during the pandemic. The streaming services kept you. Connected people. You had something to talk about. Did you see the latest episode of Mrs. Maisel? I did. I saw them all. So, it was something to talk about. It was a human connection. You're watching all the shows and Ted Lasso and I'm not going to go down that path. But this is what's happened to New Yorkers. The people here, we're here to protect. And we're going to make sure that we're signing a law today. That requires businesses to notify consumers of any upcoming automatic renewal or continuous service charge.
At least let people know in clear language, simple, push here to cancel. Let's make it simple for people because life is hard enough. And also, they have to have very clear instructions on how to cancel anything. Last bill I am signing today, they will address invisible credit card fees that drive up the cost of goods and services. Invisible for a reason, right? Business model based on this. More businesses have begun charging customers extra when they swipe their credit card. Who knew this? Does anybody know this? Basically, we are a credit card society. People don't walk around with cash. People have no idea what this green stuff is that's from a long time ago.
It's PayPal, there's other ways to do it, but if you have a credit card, you don't even know that they're charging extra fees to use it, and it's buried as a surcharge, a service fee, a convenience fee, or they just skip it and supposedly give discounts, people pay with cash, except no one uses cash.
Let's be, make them be transparent. Let us know what you're doing. Let's have the true price up front when you're making your decisions, and that's what this new law will make us, will make, ensure as well, every cent counts for people. When you're living on the edge, every penny counts. And what we're talking about today can help you whether you find yourself in medical debt where you're a senior citizen like my father used to sign up for everything and now that he's gone, we're seeing his credit card. Like Dad, you didn't even watch these services. So, it happens to people unknowingly. It all adds up and it can send families into ruin. I don't want to hear any more about families making these tough, tough, tough decisions. Let's just give people a break. And especially our seniors who are so vulnerable, they are intentionally preyed upon by these services, by the drug manufacturers who take advantage of them, and no one should ever have to make a horrible choice between their physical health and their financial health.
Today, we're making a difference. And I want to thank everybody who had a role in this. All the advocates who got the job done, got this over the finish line, I want to applaud all of you. Thank you everybody for being part of helping make history here in the state of New York.