Georgia

Fair Fight to pay off medical debt for over 100,000 people

ATLANTA — More than 108,000 people scattered across five different states are about to see their medical debt disappear within the next week according to Stacey Abrams’ voting rights foundation Fair Fight.

The organization announced Wednesday morning they are donating $1.34 million to RIP Medical Debt. RIP Medical Debt is an organization founded with the express mission of using donations to purchase unpaid medical debt and paying it off.

[DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks]

Fair Fight says the people impacted by the donation will be receiving letters in the coming days notifying them their debt has been relieved.

The 108,000 people affected by this live in Alabama, Arizona, Georgia, Louisiana and Mississippi.

“I know firsthand how medical costs and a broken healthcare system put families further and further in debt,” Abrams said. “Across the Sunbelt and in the South, this problem is exacerbated in states like Georgia where failed leaders have callously refused to expand Medicaid, even during a pandemic. Working with RIP Medical Debt, Fair Fight is stepping in where others have refused to take action. For people of color, the working poor and middle-class families facing crushing costs, we hope to relieve the strain on desperate Americans and on hospitals struggling to remain open.”

TRENDING STORIES:

The donation will allow RIP Medical Debt to pay off over $212 million of medical debt in the five states. The cost of paying off that debt is only a small percentage of the actual amount owed.

According to Fair Fight, here is the state-by-state breakdown:

  • Georgia: $123,193,570.70 in debt relief for 68,685 individuals
  • Louisiana: $17.476,259.35 in debt relief for 8,265 individuals
  • Alabama: $1,857,166.42 in debt relief for 1,953 individuals
  • Mississippi: $2,350,757.12 in debt relief for 2,058 individuals
  • Arizona: $67,904,064.13 in debt relief for 27,282 individuals

Abrams group said there is over $141 billion of unpaid medical debt in the U.S. right now. They said the debt burden in the southern U.S. is over 30% higher than it is in the north and that one-in-five households have medical debt.

[SIGN UP: WSB-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter]

IN OTHER NEWS: