Around 100,000 Connecticut residents burdened by medical debt will get letters this week wiping their slates all or partially clean, Gov. Ned Lamont announced Wednesday.
Partnering for a second time with the nonprofit organization Undue Medical Debt, the government mined funding from the American Rescue Plan Act to buy $100 million in debt for $575,000. In December, the state erased $30 million in debt for 23,000 residents, eventually planning to wipe out $1 billion in debt for an estimated 250,000 residents.
People and families contending with “potentially life-threatening health situations” shouldn’t have to cope with the “additional anxiety and stress” of not being able to pay for treatment, Lamont said in a statement.
To qualify, household income must be at or below four times the federal poverty level, which is $32,150 for a family of four, or the debt must equal at least 5% of income. Acquired in bulk for pennies on the dollar from hospitals and collection agencies, the debt by its very nature belongs to those least able to pay, so there’s no way to request or apply for the relief.
More than 100 million adults in the U.S. collectively owe more than $220 billion in medical debt, according to the health care nonprofit KFF, formerly the Kaiser Family Foundation.
At least 26 state and local governments so far have alleviated medical debt for some residents, following in the footsteps of Connecticut, the first state to launch a medical debt relief initiative.
In the past week alone, Los Angeles County in California, Wayne County in Michigan, and the state of Rhode Island have announced similar relief. The initiative is alive and well in New York City too, with Mayor Adams last year laying out a plan to eliminate more than $2 billion in medical debt for up to 500,000 residents.
With News Wire Services
