Probably the important quote of the article:
“If you are able to … save $2 billion in debt, that $2 billion trickles down to those households, who are not going to fall into our safety net,” he said. “They’re not going to fall into our homeless system.”
I’d love to see how this program impacts safety net programs over the next few years. $18mm seems inexpensive if it means even a fraction of the $2bn goes back toward spending in the city.
What’s more insane is how there’s even a market to buy this debt for pennies on the dollar.
Private insurance was a mistake.
Seems like I should be able to buy my own medical debt for pennies on the dollar.
Make no mistake, organizations such as RIP Medical Debt are making a difference. I dug into their 990s and annual reports and determined that there is a substantial cost to delivering this boon to those in need. In 2022, 1.77 billion in debt was reported abolished. The purchased cost of that debt was 6 million. Additional operating expenses for the organization were 1.7 million.
More needs to be done for medical cost reduction in our nation.