This is such a great idea. It shouldn’t be necessary in a country rich enough for CEOs to earn billions of dollars, but that’s where we are. Today’s story is about churches that have taken it on themselves to relieve struggling patients of intolerable burdens by buying up medical debt for pennies on the dollar.
In an opinion piece in the New York Times, Elizabeth Bruenig writes, “Vanessa Matos couldn’t believe what she was reading. ‘I was like, OK, this is a scam,’ she recalled of the letter she received in February. …
“Ms. Matos’s medical debt — more than $900 owed because of complications from surgery at the Massachusetts hospital where she had worked as a nurse — had been forgiven by strangers at a church she had never been to.
“Adam Mabry, the lead pastor of that congregation, Aletheia Church, a multiethnic, 1,400-member Boston-area Christian community, doesn’t know Ms. Matos, and she doesn’t know him; the two have never spoken. …
“Aletheia worked through RIP Medical Debt, a charitable organization founded in 2014 by two former debt collection executives, Craig Antico and Jerry Ashton. It uses donations to buy portfolios of medical debt at a fraction of their value — and then forgives it.
“Debt is a particularly destructive consequence of an American health care system that treats medical care as a consumer good. A Kaiser Family Foundation survey in 2018 found that 67 percent of Americans worry about paying for unexpected medical bills. …
“In just societies, these debts do not exist. But in our society, charity must stand in for justice so long as the latter is in short supply.
“Partners of RIP Medical Debt need not raise the actual amount of money they intend to relieve in debt, because the price of debt reflects what collectors could recover — far less than is owed. That means a buyer can eliminate the debt for much less money than the debtor could.
RIP Medical Debt estimates that just one dollar can purchase, and relieve, $100 in medical debt.
“So with a series of relatively moderate fund-raising efforts and donations from corporations, nonprofit and religious groups, and individuals, RIP Medical Debt said, it has been able to eliminate almost $2.7 billion in medical debt.
“Some religious congregations … grasp what our legislators can’t: The cost of survival in this country is unconscionable, and we all share a moral obligation to do something about it. …
“Forgiving medical debt has managed to ally very different Christians behind the same cause.
“Mr. Mabry, for example, cheekily described his theological stance as ‘historically boring and orthodox,’ even evangelical. Most people ‘would associate social concern with progressivism and maybe theological liberalism,’ he said, but ‘the great majority of actual social programs are funded and executed by really frustratingly conservative, boring, historic, orthodox people.’
“The Rev. Traci Blackmon is associate general minister of justice and local church ministries for the United Church of Christ, a fairly liberal denomination. ‘The U.C.C. has no rigid formulation of doctrine or attachment to creeds or structures,’ the church’s website says. ‘Its overarching creed is love.’
“A recent campaign led by the church abolished more than $26 million in medical debt throughout New England, and the church plans to expand efforts to include the entire country. …
“ ‘We’re buying somewhere close to $100 worth of debt for a dollar,’ she told me, ‘and when you think about how many people’s credit is being ruined, how much access is being denied people because they can’t pay that bill, and I can come and pay your $5,000 bill with $12 — that’s not just.’ …
“The trouble with medical debt is that it is a consequence of the way our health care system is structured, with individuals owing, even in the best case, some out-of-pocket costs for their care. Debt may be eliminated today, but more will begin accumulating tomorrow unless drastic changes are made. …
“There is an apocryphal statement often attributed to Saint Augustine, who helped lay the foundations of modern Christian theology: ‘Charity is no substitute for justice withheld.’ “
More at the New York Times, here.
Suzanne's Mom's Blog 
While I admire the generosity, it’s no way to run health care system in a modern country.
You got that right! That was actually the main point of the op-ed, but I didn’t put in all of her argument.
Sign of the times. In order for our health to be better in the US we need to have more comprehensive health coverage. This is especially evident during the pandemic.
If only those who have no worries about paying would realize that other people getting sick is a danger to them, too!
Agreed that the system is lousy. I have forwarded this post to the rectors of my church. Our traditional ways of giving are somewhat curtailed (no Food Cupboard for example) and they might just cotton to getting involved with one of the organizations doing this work.
Wow, Hannah! That would be so awesome. A perfect pandemic project. Can’t wait to tell my husband because he told me about this. Let me know what your church decides.
I don’t expect to hear back from them, alas, meaning that they probably won’t take it seriously. I think their giving program is pretty well set (in stone?). One can only throw new ideas out there and hope they take root. Kinda like a mustard seed lol.
Wow!! Our healthcare system needs reformation. I see it daily, where my patients struggle to pay their medical bills. During this pandemic it is even worse. Thank you for this information. I will do my best to pass it along
Thank you, Jaara.
Very helpful article! Thanks for sharing and keep posting.