In 2016 John Oliver announced on his TV Show that he had purchased and forgiven nearly $15 million in medical debt that he purchased for a mere $60,000. Some people thought it was a TV stunt, but in researching further I discovered R.I.P. Medical Debt, a company founded by two former debt collections executives. They realized they had the expertise to help people saddled with unpaid and unpayable medical debt. Their answer is pretty simple. Their company R.I.P. Medical Debt uses donations to buy large bundles of medical debt and then forgives that debt with no tax consequences to either the donor or the recipient. In essence, they allow people like you and me to do on a smaller scale what John Oliver did.
Judith Jones and Carolyn Kenyon from Ithaca, New York, heard about R.I.P. Medical Debt and started their own fund-raising campaign to help people in New York. Over the summer of 2018, they raised $12,500 and, with the help of R.I.P. Medical Debt, were able to forgive a portfolio of $1.5 million in medical debts, paying about a half a penny on the dollar. R.I.P. Medical Debt seeks to buy the debts of people who earn less than two times the federal poverty level, those in financial hardship, and people facing insolvency. For those receiving debt relief, it is a tax-free gift that not only pays off their debt but removes it from their credit reports.
How You Can Help
Although R.I.P. Medical Debt is not able to abolish debt in specific regions, you can ask them to restrict your donation to specific regional “hot spots,” including Arizona, Louisiana, Nebraska and Texas. According to their webpage there is $210 million of medical debt in Arizona shackling our fellow citizens with garnished wages and poor credit, difficulties in getting a loan, apartment or even a job. In this time of COVID-19, we can expect much more unpayable medical debt. (For example, the actor Nick Cordero died in July after being in the hospital since early April, over 100 days. He was put into an induced coma, placed on a ventilator, developed blood clots and had his right leg amputated, underwent dialysis, was placed on a heart-lung machine, given a temporary pacemaker, and had mini-stokes. Most people can’t afford that level of treatment.)
Individuals can donate directly through R.I.P. Medical Debt website or by sending a check to their office (designate “Arizona” or one of the hot spots to target your donation) but it is also possible for a group to set up a fundraising program. If you’re a Unitarian Universalist, see the article “The UUs Making Medical Debt Disappear” in the Summer 2020 UU World . Wouldn’t it be cool if we could set up a fundraising program and you, my fans, plus people from our extended communities, our churches and congregations, book groups, and others banded together to forget the debt of our neighbors?
What do you think? Would you participate in such a funding raising event? Let me know in the comments.
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