Another 6,300 Oakland County residents will have more than $6 million in medical debt abolished thanks to the county’s partnership with a national nonprofit and dedicated federal funds.
The county announced in October 2023 that it would partner with RIP Medical Debt, now known as Undue Medical Debt, to wipe out medical debt for possibly up to 80,000 county residents who qualify.
With this latest round, the county said in a release Monday, March 23, it has abolished more than $15 million in medical debt for more than 20,000 residents since the program launched.
Officials allocated $2 million of the county’s American Rescue Plan Act funds for the nonprofit to purchase the residents’ medical debt for pennies on the dollar, then eliminate the medical debt. In 2023, they said they hoped that up to a total of $200 million in medical debt of its residents would be eliminated.
“This initiative is about giving people a second chance,” County Executive Dave Coulter said in the March 23 release. “By eliminating this burden for thousands more residents, we’re helping people regain their financial footing.”
The county said notification letters from Undue Medical Debt were to arrive in residents’ mailboxes starting March 9 telling them their qualifying medical debt is eliminated permanently.
Medical debt is a leading cause of bankruptcy in the United States and affects an estimated 114,000 Oakland County residents, according to the release.
It said Undue Medical Debt works with hospitals, health systems and debt holders to identify qualifying medical debt. Eligible residents must either earn at or below four times the federal poverty level or have medical debt that exceeds 5% of their annual income.
Qualifying debts can be abolished only if the provider or debt holder agrees to participate. Residents cannot apply for the program; the county said; instead, eligible debts are identified through partnerships with providers and debt holders.
Undue Medical Debt has relieved more than $25 billion in medical debt for more than 15 million people in the United States since 2014, according to its website.
It says more than $5.6 billion in debt has been abolished in the Midwest region, which includes Michigan and 11 other states, since 2018.
The state of Michigan announced in July that it was partnering with Undue Medical Debt, which indicated in a release at that time that Wayne, Oakland and Kalamazoo counties partnered with the nonprofit to forgive debt in their communities.
Contact Christina Hall: chall@freepress.com. Follow her on X: @challreporter.
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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Oakland County eliminates another $6M in medical debt for residents
Reporting by Christina Hall, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
