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Michigan erases $144 million in medical debt for more than 210,000 residents
Scripps News ^ | 10:47 AM, Jul 18, 2025 and last updated 11:51 AM, Jul 18, 2025 | Scripps News Group

Posted on 07/18/2025 12:32:55 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum

State leaders partner with nonprofits to purchase and forgive medical debt.

Michigan has eliminated $144 million in medical debt for more than 210,000 residents as part of a state initiative announced by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.

The debt relief comes through a partnership with the nonprofit organization Undue Medical Debt, which purchases medical debt for pennies on the dollar.

"We believe that getting sick or getting hurt shouldn't have to mean going broke," Whitmer said.

Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist noted the widespread impact of medical debt in the state, saying, "We estimate that there are more than 700,000 adults who carry medical debt. That's more than the combined populations of Grand Rapids, plus Lansing, plus Ann Arbor."

The initiative aims to address cases like that of Naqua Atkinson, a 23-year-old who died from a severe infection after avoiding dental treatment due to fears of accumulating more medical debt.

Jenn Strebs, chairperson of the Kalamazoo County Board of Commissioners, shared Atkinson's story: "You know he had had serious diabetes most of his life, and he was suffering from a pretty severe toothache at work. And all of us were encouraging to go and get it checked out."

"It was enough debt to make him fear going for care, and that's reality for a lot of people," Strebs said.

Allison Sesso, president and CEO of Undue Medical Debt, explained how the organization operates: "We buy medical debt for pennies on the dollar. One dollar gets rid of at least 100 dollars of medical debt. That's not magic, that's math. There is a for-profit market for medical debt that we take advantage of."

Sesso also expressed concern about recent Medicaid cuts enacted by Congress, warning they could exacerbate the problem.

(Excerpt) Read more at scrippsnews.com ...


TOPICS: Health/Medicine
KEYWORDS: crimecorruption; illegal; illegals
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To: TheDon

You are correct. Medical costs could result in a sovereign debt crisis in the United States if now reined in.


21 posted on 07/18/2025 2:45:32 PM PDT by packagingguy
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

To be fair, this is how Democrats win. Whitmer is smart.


22 posted on 07/18/2025 2:53:35 PM PDT by CondoleezzaProtege ( )
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Gosh. Do you think it could be all that? I donno. /s

In our recent hospitalization that lasted nearly 5 days it could have been and should have been more like maybe 3 days. I wrote the hospital, for all they care, that if the standard of management was equal to some of their people and technology their services would have been world class excellent. If I had managed my business they way they manage patients I would be broke and have never retired. Coordination between services is one place to start. Every specialty runs their own show in every respect. Important or even emergency conditions never cross the boundaries of services without someone raising hell. Fortunately, we had a surgeon that did just that with the prima donnas in cardiology.

How is it that every hospital claims they are broke but every major one of them has a massive building program? They claim they are short on beds but the Mercy Hospital we were in had only 2 out of 7 wards on the floor that were being used. Oh wait, that is wrong, one whole ward was dedicated to training.

One of our local rural hospitals closed two weeks ago. The main reason I am told is that medicare / medicade rules strangle them with low reimbursement because of the 22 mile proximity to a regional medical center. Why should this be so? Who do you think influences that kind of rule?

Why complain? Nothing is going to change. Not the best health care in the world but hands down the most expensive and everybody in that system complains they don’t get paid enough.

Beware the medical industrial complex that consumes close to 20% of our GDP. That should be utterly staggering to anyone. It should be a national crisis that any overhead type of public service costs so much. Did George Kaiser and Tricky Dick have anything to do with what it has become? Memory serves me that they did.


23 posted on 07/18/2025 3:05:28 PM PDT by Sequoyah101
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To: fwdude

CARTELS LAUNDERING MONEY ?


24 posted on 07/18/2025 3:50:16 PM PDT by ridesthemiles (not giving up on TRUMP---EVER)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

I bet there was a majority of afro-americans...


25 posted on 07/18/2025 3:54:08 PM PDT by sit-rep (START DEMANDING INDICTMENTS NOW!!!!!)
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To: Sequoyah101

Great post! Kudos.


26 posted on 07/18/2025 3:55:34 PM PDT by gloryblaze
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To: gloryblaze

TY


27 posted on 07/18/2025 4:46:39 PM PDT by Sequoyah101
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Ping med admin costs


28 posted on 07/18/2025 7:18:33 PM PDT by WhattheDickens? (Funny, I didn’t think this was 1984…)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

I wonder if this is $144 million face value or $144 million for the debt they bought. I have a relative that works in the debt buying industry and medical debt probably sells for Pennie’s on the dollar. So if you have a $1000 medical debt that has been charged off, they can buy it for $100 at 10 cents on the dollar. If it is really old medical debt it could sell even less.


29 posted on 07/18/2025 7:18:51 PM PDT by gunnut
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To: gunnut
I wonder if this is $144 million face value or $144 million for the debt they bought.

The second sentence of the article states:

"The debt relief comes through a partnership with the nonprofit organization Undue Medical Debt, which purchases medical debt for pennies on the dollar."

30 posted on 07/18/2025 7:21:36 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum (Democrats are the Party of racism, anger, hate and violence.)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

So the spent $14 million or so to retire $144 million in debt.


31 posted on 07/18/2025 7:23:53 PM PDT by gunnut
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To: Chewbarkah
If a non-profit is buying the debt and forgiving it, where do the State and Gretchen Whitmer come in? Is the State of Michigan funding the non-profit? How much do the charity’s officers and employees make? How does this help the medical service providers, left with “pennies on the dollar”? Or discourage others from running up bad debt?

From digging through quite a few news articles, one or two mention that the State provided $4.5MM, and donations are "matching funds", but doesn't say if those are matching 1:1, or 100:1, or 1:100. So I'd guess the State was a huge majority, considering the nonprofit didn't already spend several millions recently on this, implying they didn't have the $$ until the State gave it to them. The State funding is what pushed this round of purchasing.

Per Charity Navigator, the CEO makes $300M, and the program hits about 81% to it's actual charity. So pretty decent compared to most.

Medical service people 'like' it, because most of this debt was written off anyway. They expect to recoup $0/$100,000, so getting $2-5M instead is better than nothing. Because most people owe way too much compared to income/assets, and barely work or go all-cash anyway. They already know they aren't paying it back, so why bother trying at all? Getting the debt paid for them is a "relief", but it really won't actually help the large majority of recipients.

I doubt this encourages or discourages people from running up more debt. Medical expenses are innediately necessary (ignoring the service/price inflation; when you break your arm, you HAVE to go to the doc), so people aren't going to skip the doc for most stuff. They'll go to the ER and just skip the bill and add more debt to their bill they don't plan to pay. There may be a few people who die due to being scared to go in, but those really aren't very common at all.
32 posted on 07/19/2025 8:17:33 AM PDT by Svartalfiar (-)
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To: Svartalfiar; Chewbarkah

Oh, and I forgot to mention in that first paragraph, this was $4.5MM taxpayer dollars, but apparently they’re already looking at dropping another $5MM on it in the next budget. A good chunk of change there!


33 posted on 07/19/2025 8:19:26 AM PDT by Svartalfiar (-)
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To: Svartalfiar

Thanks very much for all the information and the work you put into it!


34 posted on 07/19/2025 11:57:09 AM PDT by Chewbarkah
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To: Svartalfiar

And this is over and above the millions the state doles out for Medicaid.


35 posted on 07/19/2025 11:59:21 AM PDT by Chewbarkah
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