More than 1,000 families in the Tri-County area of Berrien, Cass and Van Buren Counties learned this week that after struggling to manage hundreds of dollars in medical debt in each of their lives, that debt will be paid off on their behalf.
This week Harbor Country Mission, the Lake Street Community Church and I CAN Cafe announced plans to forgive $1.5 Million in medical debt for those families so they can get out from under that tremendous weight keeping them down.
The three organizations have raised enough money to clear more than $1.5 million in medical debt for more than 1,000 Michigan families in Michigan’s Great Southwest, with Harbor Country Mission’s Executive Director Dave Heyn telling the Berrien County Board, “Our joint project is intended to ease the burden of excessive medical bills, which is the No. 1 cause of personal bankruptcy.”
The trio has worked with RIP Medical Debt, a New York-based charity, to erase medical debt for more than 1,500 Michigan individuals or families in southwest Michigan. Because RIP Medical Debt acquires debt for a fraction of the value, the organizations are able to pay $15,000 to abolish $1.5 million in medical debt.
David Yardley, Director of Development for Harbor Country Mission says, “More than $100 billion in unpaid medical debt every year has an adverse impact on debtor patients, physicians and hospitals. And, more than 52-percent of Americans have a medical collection action on their credit reports.”
Scott Gannon Patton is Director of Development for RIP Medical Debt. He says, “RIP is proud to stand with Harbor Country Mission on this important project to relieve a minimum of $1.5 million of medical debt in Berrien, Van Buren, and Cass counties.” RIP Medical Debt’s mission is to empower donors to forgive the billions in oppressive medical debt at pennies on the dollar.
Pastor Dalton Stanage of Lake Street Community Church sees how medical debt hurts his church members health, saying, “When you’re already in debt because of your health care, you let chronic illnesses go until it’s an emergency, people don’t go to the doctor, they don’t get their medications filled. Too many people are just one medical emergency away from a bankruptcy.”
As soon as the debt is purchased, the debtors will receive a letter in the mail letting them know their debt has been forgiven.
Here’s how it works:
RIP buys and forgives “portfolios” of medical debt from health care providers and from the secondary debt market, which allows them to forgive thousands of people’s debts at once. RIP is not yet able to handpick and forgive personal medical debt for individuals.
When they purchase a portfolio of medical debt, They abolish debt for those who:
- Earn less than 2 times the federal poverty level (which varies by state and family size).
- Whose debts are 5-percent or more of their annual income.
- Are facing insolvency — debts are greater than assets.
