Does Medical Debt Show Up When You Apply for a Mortgage in Colorado?

Quick version: generally not, unless your loan is above a certain size. Colorado law bars credit reporting agencies from putting adverse medical debt information on the consumer reports they sell, so it generally won't appear on the report a lender pulls. The law has an exception tied to loan size, for loans above the national conforming loan limit, and that's worth knowing before you apply.

What Colorado's medical debt law says

Colorado passed its medical debt credit reporting law, HB23-1126, in 2023. It prohibits a consumer reporting agency from making a consumer report that contains adverse information it knows or should know concerns medical debt.

The law defines medical debt broadly. It covers debt from health care services and health care goods, including things like medical devices, durable medical equipment and prescription drugs.

It also reaches debt collectors. A collector can't falsely tell you a medical bill will land on your credit report or count against your score, except in the larger loan situation below. Their first written notice to you has to include a statement about these protections.

The exception that matters for mortgages

The law has an exception tied to loan size. Its protection doesn't apply to a credit transaction that involves, or may reasonably be expected to involve, a principal amount above the national conforming loan limit for a one unit property. The Federal Housing Finance Agency sets that limit each year.

In plain terms: if you're applying for a loan above that limit, sometimes called a jumbo loan, medical debt information may be reported. For a loan at or below the limit, the Colorado protection generally applies.

Because FHFA sets the limit each year, don't rely on a number you saw online. Your lender can tell you which side of the line your loan amount is likely to fall on.

Where the federal medical debt rule stands

You may have read about a federal medical debt rule from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The CFPB's page for that rule shows that a federal court vacated it in July 2025, at the joint request of the Bureau and the plaintiffs.

So for Colorado buyers today, the Colorado law is a key protection to understand. If you've moved here from another state, the rules where you used to live may have worked differently.

What the law may not change

Keeping medical debt off a credit report may not mean the bill itself has gone away.

A few things are worth keeping in mind:

• The bill may still be owed. The law generally limits what can be reported, so it's worth having a plan for any balance.
• Not every debt is clearly medical. If a balance was moved onto another kind of account, ask your lender how it may be viewed.
• Larger loans may be treated differently. If your price range points to a loan above the conforming limit, plan as if medical collections could appear.
• Lenders look at your whole picture. The lender will need to determine whether you qualify based on your income, your other debts and the rest of your file.

Check your credit report before you apply

The simplest move is to pull your reports and look for anything medical that shouldn't be there. If you find an error, the CFPB explains that fixing an error on your credit report generally means contacting both the credit reporting company and the company that provided the information.

Doing this a few months before you apply can give a dispute time to work through. It also means you walk into your first lender conversation knowing what's actually on your report.

If you're new to the process, how to get preapproved for a mortgage in Colorado walks through what a lender asks for and why.

If you rent now and have old medical bills

If you've assumed old medical bills shut the door on buying, that may not be true in Colorado for a loan at or below the conforming limit, because those bills generally can't appear on the report the lender pulls.

That means you can plan around medical debt instead of giving up on buying. Start with your credit report, set aside any loan amount questions for your lender, and look at the rest of your budget the way a lender would.

Your next step

If you want a sense of where you stand, the quick homebuyer readiness quiz is a good place to start. You can also read more about getting a mortgage in Colorado.

Diane also helps buyers in Arizona, Montana and Florida.

Diane Beaumont, Mortgage Loan Originator, NMLS #247026. Benchmark Mortgage, a dba of Ark-La-Tex Financial Services, LLC, NMLS #2143. Equal Housing Lender. Not a commitment to lend.