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 ...
You are correct. Medical costs could result in a sovereign debt crisis in the United States if now reined in.
To be fair, this is how Democrats win. Whitmer is smart.
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.
CARTELS LAUNDERING MONEY ?
I bet there was a majority of afro-americans...
Great post! Kudos.
TY
Ping med admin costs
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.
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."
So the spent $14 million or so to retire $144 million in debt.
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!
Thanks very much for all the information and the work you put into it!
And this is over and above the millions the state doles out for Medicaid.
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