RIP Medical Debt

RIP Medical Debt is a Long Island City–based 501(c)(3) charity[1] focused on the elimination of personal medical debt.[2] Founded in 2014 by former debt collection executives Jerry Ashton and Craig Antico,[3] the charity purchases portfolios of income-qualifying medical debt from debt collectors and healthcare providers, and then relieves the debt.[4] The charity converts every dollar contributed into $100 of purchased medical debt relief. The founders were inspired by medical debt elimination efforts by Occupy Wall Street.[5] The charity gained attention in 2016 when the TV show Last Week Tonight with John Oliver used them to turn $60,000 into $15 million of debt forgiveness.[6] As of June 2022, the charity has forgiven debts for over 2,800,000 individuals and families, totaling over $5 billion.[7][8] CBS News Sunday Morning profiled RIP Medical Debt in a long-form journalism piece by correspondent Martha Teichner in the April 16, 2023, episode of the Sunday morning television newsmagazine, in which it was stated that the non-profit charity had already extinguished more than $9.5 billion in medical debt.[9]

In January 2020, professional basketball player Trae Young of the Atlanta Hawks donated $10,000 to the non-profit to abolish a total of $1,000,000 in medical debt.[10]

In December 2020, philanthropist MacKenzie Scott, who was previously married to Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos, donated $50 million.[11]

References
  1. "RIP Medical Debt". Charity Navigator. Retrieved 28 November 2020.
  2. Holpuch, Amanda (2022-12-29). "Medical Debt Is Being Erased in Ohio and Illinois. Is Your Town Next?". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2022-12-29.
  3. Samuel, Leah (June 6, 2016). "Inside the medical debt charity that John Oliver just made famous". Stat. Retrieved 28 November 2020.
  4. Overall, Michael (26 November 2020). "A Tulsa couple we're thankful for tells us how they did it". Tulsa World. Retrieved 28 November 2020.
  5. Esch, Mary (December 24, 2018). "Secret Santas: Charity buys and erases past-due medical debt". Associated Press. Retrieved 28 November 2020.
  6. Goldman, David (June 6, 2016). "John Oliver makes 'TV history' by forgiving $15 million in medical debt". CNN Business. Retrieved 28 November 2020.
  7. "RIP Medical Debt and TransUnion Healthcare Surpass $5 Billion of Medical Debt Relieved and Expand Partnership". RIP Medical Debt. Retrieved 20 June 2022.
  8. "Collecting to Forgive". RIP Medical Debt. Retrieved 13 February 2021.
  9. Teichner, Martha (2023-04-16). "RIP Medical Debt: Abolishing crippling health care debts". CBS News Sunday Morning. Retrieved 2023-07-03.
  10. Habersham, Raisa (January 8, 2020). "Hawks player Trae Young cancels $1M in medical debt for Atlanta families". The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Retrieved August 13, 2021.
  11. Paavola, Alia (December 16, 2020). "'A game changer': RIP Medical Debt gets $50M donation". Becker's Hospital Review. Retrieved August 13, 2021.
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