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A number of smaller Division I programs offered Michigan State basketball player Kenny Goins a full scholarship out of Warren Mott High School in Warren, Mich. Instead, he enrolled at Michigan State, which didn’t offer him a scholarship, forcing him and his family to take out a student loan, the Wall Street Journal reported. “I wanted to send him college where he wanted to go rather than where he needed to go,” said Ken Goins, Kenny’s father. Goins and his parents chose the path that 45 million people in this country take in paying for college. Ken Goins couldn’t find a job at the time. (He now works for the local school district as a bus driver and in other roles.) His mother, Laura, requires care and the assistance of a wheelchair because of a condition called an arteriovenous malformation, an abnormal connection between arteries and veins that nearly killed her. With the medical bills rising, Kenny Goins felt he should opt for a free ride at Central Michigan, despite his lifelong dream to play for Michigan State. Before he could, however, the Chippewas received a commitment from another big man. Goins’s spot suddenly disappeared. Ken Goins viewed it as a blessing. He realized his son preferred Michigan State, which expressed interest in Goins as a walk-on. He told Kenny not to worry about the financial situation, telling him, “The financial things are not your issue to worry about. Your job is to go to school and have fun.” He would figure it out later. The loan amounted to about $17,000. Read more. (Subscription required.) 

Student loan debt in bankruptcy will be one of the many topics addressed in the Final Report of the ABI Commission on Consumer Bankruptcy. The full report of recommendations to improve the consumer bankruptcy system will released next Thursday on the Commission’s website . A briefing on Thursday with Commission leadership at 10 a.m. EDT to discuss the recommendations will be streamed live on the Commission site.

Prepaid payment cards and mobile services just received a status upgrade, giving their users the same protections and services as those for bank debit-card customers, the Wall Street Journal reported. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau this week started requiring issuers of prepaid cards to guarantee basic protection from fraud, unauthorized charges and errors. Prepaid cards allow users to load funds directly to a card without having a bank account. They usually carry a card-network logo like Visa or Mastercard and allow consumers to shop anywhere. Prepaid services are among the fastest-growing segment of the financial payments industry. The total amount loaded on general-use prepaid cards in the U.S. grew to $324 billion in 2017 from $208 billion in 2012, according to Mercator Advisory Group, a research and consulting firm. It projects the market to grow at an annual rate of around 10 percent, reaching $428 billion in 2021.

A survey released yesterday by Gallup and the nonprofit West Health found that Americans borrowed an estimated $88 billion over the last year to pay for health care, the New York Times reported. The survey also found that one in four Americans have skipped treatment because of the cost, and that nearly half fear bankruptcy in the event of a health emergency. There was a partisan divide when respondents were asked whether they believed that the American health care system is among the best in the world: Among Republicans, 67 percent of respondents said they believed so; that number was 38 percent among Democrats. But Democrats and Republicans had similar responses about putting off medical treatment. Asked if they had deferred treatment because of the cost, 27 percent of Democrats said they had, compared with 21 percent of Republicans and 30 percent of independents.