The county government on Tuesday became the latest municipality to consider wiping out residents’ long-lingering medical bills by buying up the debt at a steep discount. The Board of Supervisors unanimouslyto ask county executives to explore purchasing and forgiving the more than $2 billion constituents owe in unpaid medical expenses.
According to the report, county residents had racked up more than $2.6 billion in medical debt as of 2021, the most recent year for which data were available. To buy $2 billion of it, the Department of Public Health estimates officials would need to spend $24 million. Daniel Lempert, a spokesperson for the organization, said Cook County and the cities of Toledo, New Orleans and Cleveland are the farthest along.
Lempert, with RIP Medical Debt, said the organization typically buys debt from a wide variety of places — hospitals, physician groups, ambulance groups, debt collectors. On average, he said, $1 can wipe roughly $100 of medical debt.
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