>Another more than $200 million in medical debt has been wiped out for Arizonans.
>And the recipients are going to know who to thank: Gov. Katie Hobbs.
>The new figure was announced Monday by Allison Sasso. She’s the president and CEO of Undue Medical Debt, a company that agreed earlier this year to use some $10 million in state American Rescue Plan COVID relief dollars to buy up medical debt from hospitals and doctors for a few pennies on the dollar, eliminating a negative mark on the credit reports of those who racked up the bills.
>All totaled, according to the governor’s office, the program has so far erased $642 million owed by more than 485,000 Arizonans.
>And under a deal the state cut with Undue Medical, the beneficiaries all get letters crediting not just United Medical but also the governor.
Way to go, Katie Hobbs! Arizona is so lucky to have her as governor over Kari Lake. Katie actually cares about helping people. We need more governors like her to help alleviate the pressure of medical debt from people’s minds. This is a net positive all around.
tizor_rozit on
This is good, but the concept of buying discount medical debt from a doctor is so degrading to human dignity.
hypermodernvoid on
Oh please, Tim Walz, do this before the upcoming gubernatorial election and you’ll win by a landslide: even like half of Republicans are cool with universal (government funded/payment-administered) healthcare at this point, and surely excusing medical debt since tons of them have it. Hell, while some of the dumbest and most militantly MAGA are against student debt relief, even with kids who have significant amounts of it – plenty of Republicans actually agreed with that, too.
OldFort27 on
There goes the “radical left scum,” actually caring about people other than the rich.
sneakywombat87 on
Wow, erased $642M for $10M? That’s impressive. Well done.
No-Post4444 on
Waiting for Republicans to scream “Communism!!” and “Socialism!!” about this. Those people are deranged.
Tumble85 on
r/OrphanCrushingMachine
TotalEclipse19 on
Politician does something good for ordinary Americans. That’s a piece of news you won’t hear coming from Washington.
rockelscorcho on
Canceling medical debt? That sounds unAmerican. When did we start helping others?
Aargau on
To me, this shows how broken our current system is.
Back in the day before Obamacare, I founded a startup, and didn’t qualify for insurance.
OK, I’ll pay cash.
We talked to our local hospital and asked what the cost was a procedure. They said “we can’t tell you”.
“You can’t tell me? I’m paying cash, I want to know what the out the door cost is”
“We can’t tell you. We can only tell you afterwards…”
dogsandwhiskey on
Merry Christmas!! I’m so glad I read this today
T_r_y2 on
Reading this as an American in a public hospital in Europe visiting someone in ICU. It’s so crazy how folks here don’t have to worry at all about the medical costs, even private hospitals are cheaper than the copays most folks have in USA. We need universal healthcare ASAP
12 Comments
>Another more than $200 million in medical debt has been wiped out for Arizonans.
>And the recipients are going to know who to thank: Gov. Katie Hobbs.
>The new figure was announced Monday by Allison Sasso. She’s the president and CEO of Undue Medical Debt, a company that agreed earlier this year to use some $10 million in state American Rescue Plan COVID relief dollars to buy up medical debt from hospitals and doctors for a few pennies on the dollar, eliminating a negative mark on the credit reports of those who racked up the bills.
>All totaled, according to the governor’s office, the program has so far erased $642 million owed by more than 485,000 Arizonans.
>And under a deal the state cut with Undue Medical, the beneficiaries all get letters crediting not just United Medical but also the governor.
Way to go, Katie Hobbs! Arizona is so lucky to have her as governor over Kari Lake. Katie actually cares about helping people. We need more governors like her to help alleviate the pressure of medical debt from people’s minds. This is a net positive all around.
This is good, but the concept of buying discount medical debt from a doctor is so degrading to human dignity.
Oh please, Tim Walz, do this before the upcoming gubernatorial election and you’ll win by a landslide: even like half of Republicans are cool with universal (government funded/payment-administered) healthcare at this point, and surely excusing medical debt since tons of them have it. Hell, while some of the dumbest and most militantly MAGA are against student debt relief, even with kids who have significant amounts of it – plenty of Republicans actually agreed with that, too.
There goes the “radical left scum,” actually caring about people other than the rich.
Wow, erased $642M for $10M? That’s impressive. Well done.
Waiting for Republicans to scream “Communism!!” and “Socialism!!” about this. Those people are deranged.
r/OrphanCrushingMachine
Politician does something good for ordinary Americans. That’s a piece of news you won’t hear coming from Washington.
Canceling medical debt? That sounds unAmerican. When did we start helping others?
To me, this shows how broken our current system is.
Back in the day before Obamacare, I founded a startup, and didn’t qualify for insurance.
OK, I’ll pay cash.
We talked to our local hospital and asked what the cost was a procedure. They said “we can’t tell you”.
“You can’t tell me? I’m paying cash, I want to know what the out the door cost is”
“We can’t tell you. We can only tell you afterwards…”
Merry Christmas!! I’m so glad I read this today
Reading this as an American in a public hospital in Europe visiting someone in ICU. It’s so crazy how folks here don’t have to worry at all about the medical costs, even private hospitals are cheaper than the copays most folks have in USA. We need universal healthcare ASAP