CareCredit is a credit card designed to help people pay for medical costs they otherwise wouldn’t be able to afford. About 50,000 US dental providers offer the card.
But a recent NPR report indicates that complaints about CareCredit have increased.
More patients are claiming they didn’t realize they were signing up for payments they would never be able to afford.
“People are being convinced to take on more credit than they can afford,” claims Elizabeth Landsberg, an attorney with the Western Center on Law and Poverty. “We have people who are living on a fixed income of $1,000 a month who are being signed up for $6,000 in credit. There’s no way they can make those payments.”
Though the American Dental Association endorses CareCredit, many people do not realize that the ADA is paid for its endorsement. “The blurring of medical provider and financial services provider is problematic,” said Mark Rukavina from The Access Project, a health care advocacy group.