Americans owed at least $195 billion of medical debt. That’s despite the fact that more than 90% of the population has health insurance coverage, according to March research by the Kaiser Family Foundation.
RIP Medical Debt is trying to relieve Americans of that burden. The nonprofit organization pays off medical bills for individuals who need it most.
The charity looks for households whose incomes are less than two times the federal poverty level guideline, which is $13,590 for 2022, or who have medical debt representing at least 5% of their gross income.
RIP Medical Debt uses “precise data analytics to pinpoint the medical debt of those most in need of relief,” according to the charity’s website. Once it has paid off their debts, the organization then sends out a surprise letter in the mail letting individuals know that their medical debt has been wiped away.
Since the charity’s inception in 2014, it has helped pay off almost $7 billion dollars of medical debt to-date, aiding more than 3.6 million families, says Allison Sesso, the president and CEO of RIP Medical Debt. In one well-publicized sweep in 2016, late-night host John Oliver purchased nearly $15 million worth of medical debt as part of a “Last Week Tonight” segment on the debt-buying industry, and then donated it to the organization.
Despite the nonprofit’s big wins, there’s still more to be done. Medical debt is so common, “I’m doing everything I can to scream from the rooftops about it and make sure that we do…
