"A statute of limitations is a law passed by a legislative body in a common law system to set the maximum time after an event within which legal proceedings may be initiated." - Wikipedia
From what the earlier poster is saying, the companies are getting around that by filing a lawsuit just before that period would expire. Then they not only get to collect on the debt for however long they can draw out the lawsuit for, they get to collect interest as well, as if the statute of limitations never existed.
They are not getting around anything. As explained this is the way it is intended: As long as you begin legal action before the deadline then indeed the statute of limitations does not apply at all (mileage may vary by jurisdiction).
A statute of limitations is not aimed at helping people wriggling out of paying what they owe (among other things). It is aimed at putting a reasonable time limit on taking legal action.
The ACLU did a writeup on it. This seems to me to be a fairly recent phenomenon (within the last 20-30 years). Another example of the corruption of our government generally favoring business interests at the cost of citizens. It's so bad now, we have debtor's prisons now all except in name. We just call it regular prison.