For the vast majority of New Jersey residents, the answer is an unequivocal no. From a post-judgment enforcement perspective, the Louisa Carman Medical Debt Relief Act fundamentally restricts the profitability of medical debt litigation by shielding the primary income source of working-class and middle-class residents. The law enacts a sweeping, absolute prohibition on wage garnishments for a vast demographic of the state’s population. Medical debt collectors are strictly barred from garnishing the wages of any patient whose annual income is less than 600% of the federal poverty level.

Because 600% of the federal poverty level encompasses a massive portion of the state’s median-income earners, this provision functionally immunizes the paychecks of most New Jerseyans from medical debt executions. This is a radical departure from historical practices where medical providers could aggressively leverage the court system to siphon funds from debtors’ paychecks to satisfy inflated healthcare judgments. Additionally, even if a debtor falls above the 600% threshold, the Act severely limits the financial damage of the underlying judgment by capping the interest rate. Regardless of standard court rules governing post-judgment interest, any interest calculated for a judgment specifically derived from medical debt is strictly capped at an absolute maximum of 3% per annum. This ensures that medical debt judgments do not balloon exponentially over time, allowing consumers a realistic pathway to satisfy the principal balance without being crushed by compounding punitive interest.