Lenders will no longer be able to see whether American borrowers have unpaid medical debt in their credit history, according to a new rule from the outgoing Biden administration.

The vice-president, Kamala Harris, announced early on Tuesday that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) was removing $49bn of existing unpaid medical bills from the credit reports of 15 million Americans and will ban the inclusion of medical debt on credit reports.

“No one should be denied economic opportunity because they got sick or experienced a medical emergency,” Harris said in a statement. “This will be life changing for millions of families, making it easier for them to be approved for a car loan, a home loan or a small-business loan.”