in our Spotlight on Business Report medical debt can cause a ripple effect of financial hardships for families and individuals impacting credit scores when debt collectors come calling while Governor Murphy signed a law to protect new jerseyans from that vicious cycle called the Louisa Carmen medical debt relief act the law was named after the champion of the bill one of Murphy's former staffers who tragically died in a car accident this year at the age of 25 Ted Goldberg takes a look at the law and the changes it'll make I wish that I never had to think about this I was 26 years old I was in the best shape of my life I was you know financially in the best shape of my life actually and then I started dying and so did my my financial health Amanda Schlesier fought and survived despite a dire diagnosis in 2018 my lymph nodes were kind of closing in on my vocal cords and so I couldn't speak um above a whisper for a long time at the time that she ran the blood work that Friday uh my white blood count was at 116 it's supposed to be between 5 and 10 Schlesier says a slew of symptoms sent her to various doctors my gum started bleeding um and they wouldn't stop but it kind of looked like really inflamed pimples but they weren't and she had one misdiagnosis after another she took one look at me and said oh you're single you're a girl in New York you have mono the doctor that I had been seeing at the time told me that I must have gotten a rock in my ear I had doctors telling me that I was hysterical Schlesier eventually found a doctor who didn't think she was hysterical and testing confirmed she had chronic lymphatic leukemia and small lymphatic lymphoma cancers that generally affect older Caucasian men despite having health insurance through her job and through Cobra Schlesier had to pay $14,000 for the first year of treatment so she needed a little help a lot of my family a lot of my friends a lot of co-workers people that you know I I ran into um that shared my story I I was very fortunate my dad hosted charity um you know fundraisers and and things like that I I sold some of my furniture I sold some of the things that I owned the Murphy Administration hopes to cut down on cases like slagers which led him to sign into law the Louisa kmen medical debt relief act yesterday no patient receives a bill while they are still recover cing in their hospital bed it will also keep medical bills out of collections for longer so families have more time to seek financial assistance or even appeal a charge and this law will also ensure that medical debt cannot be reported to Credit Agencies debt collection companies argued the bill would create unintended consequences and possibly make more barriers in healthcare Governor Murphy argued that this bill was sorely needed for the one in nine new jerseyans currently dealing with with medical debt it will protect generations of new jerseyans from falling into medical debt and facing the risk of financial ruin because I had been hounded by debt collectors so often every other call then and and even now our debt collectors and and because of that I felt pressured to do whatever it takes to pay them Schlesier is pleased to see efforts to help people in her situation though she would have liked to see this Bill signed years ago to help her but I can't go and change the past now and I am just glad that anyone else who has to deal with it in the future doesn't doesn't have to force their way through these roadblocks there's also a separate initiative in the Murphy Administration to use $10 million in state funds to wipe out medical debt for people in New Jersey that could be a big help for people like Schlesier still paying off their health care years after their recovery in Somerville I'm Ted Goldberg NJ Spotlight news [Music]