LA County to eliminate $500 million in medical debt for thousands of residents
LA County to eliminate $500 million in medical debt for thousands of residents
County officials said the program will initially eliminate $500 million in debt by using a $5 million investment to purchase medical debt for pennies on the dollar for low-income residents.
Someone in another thread said that they believe in the free market for health insurance. I simply cannot believe in a free market in an industry that bankrupts people in exchange for health.
No one should have medical debt. Period.
There's no such thing as a free market for healthcare. If I'm having a heart attack, I can't weigh the costs and benefits of calling an ambulance or going to the hospital, or even choosing which hospital I go to or who I see in the hospital. I'm dying and I need my life saved.
Sorry, can't do that. Butthurt republicans will cry "IT'S NOT FAIR", and some court in Texas will claim jurisdiction over Los Angeles, TX.
I get the sentiment, but medical debt forgiveness this way is nothing new. It's not helpful to lambast every single good story with dooming. Constant despair isn't helping us move the needle and fight back. Point out the fights where they, otherwise we're just making people too despaired to fight at all
The non-profit they partnered with has been doing work forgiving debt since 2014. And there's been high profile cases of people doing this too. In 2016, John Oliver forgave $15 million worth of medical debt for ~9 thousand people
Other local governments have done the same thing with the same non-profit:
In January this year, New York City said they were going to do the same for around 2 billion worth of medical debt for 500 thousand people over 3 years (paying around $18 million to buy that debt)
In 2023, Oakland County Michigan forgave around $200 million (paying around $2 million for the debt)
And so on
I didn't know this was a possible. How is this possible. Isn't the debt owed to corporations?
When debt isn't paid off for long enough / they think it'll be too much work to collect, it's often sold by those organizations to private debt collectors. Here instead of collecting the debt, they just buy the debt then agree to forgive it
Hopefully none for any GOP's. (Gray Old Pedophiles)
I wish we could decide where our taxes go to and we'd get the benefits. I'd like healthcare, education, infrastructure for starters. Repubs can pay for their own wars and get horrible water and dumb kids.
Expunge it off their credit reports and then I'll be impressed.