A medical debt forgiveness nonprofit will present to Council Budget Committee

In last Tuesday’s Budget, Finance, and Economic Development (BFED) Committee, Eva Stahl — Vice President of Public Policy and Program Management for the nonprofit Undue Medical Debt — presented an overview of Undue Medical Debt’s work to forgive medical debt in communities across the US.

Undue Medical Debt is a 501(c)3 nonprofit that was founded in 2014 to purchase and forgive medical debt.

• Undue Medical Debit purchases debt portfolios from healthcare providers at low rates, often paying as low as $1 for every $100 in debt owed by patients.

• Once purchased, Undue Medical Debt simply forgives the debt, rather than seeking payment from patients in the way that collection agencies do.

• To qualify for debt forgiveness, a patient must either have a debt that is 5% or more of their annual income; or make an income at 400% or below the federal poverty rate.

  • Undue Medical Debt purchases portfolios for patients who meet this criteria, meaning they acquire the debt without any patient needing to apply for assistance.

  • Patients whose debt has been forgiven receive a letter in the mail letting them know their debt is forgiven. No action is required from the patient at any stage.

Medical debt is the leading cause of bankruptcy in the United States. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, 1 in 12 Americans had medical debt in 2021. Medical debt totaled $220 billion across the country.

Republished from CivicLex.

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