Summary: <p>In<span> </span><a href="https://www.wxii12.com/article/winston-salem-church-forgives-nearly-dollar33-million-in-medical-debt-for-families/43393886">March</a>, the actions of a local church in Winston-Salem, North Carolina received <a href="https://debtjubileeproject.org/jubilee-goes-viral/">national attention</a><span> </span>for all the right reasons. The congregation at Trinity Moravian Church partnered with an organization called R-I-P Medical Debt to cancel 3,000 local residents’ medical debt, to the tune of $3.3 million dollars. They bought that debt for just a little over $15,000 dollars. </p> <p>Rev. John Jackman, the pastor of Trinity Moravian Church<span> </span><a href="https://www.facebook.com/TrinityMoravian/videos/599832251752809">held a symbolic</a><span> </span>“debt burning” ceremony to mark the occasion, with confetti and hymns. </p> <p><span>In 2016, John Oliver, a comedian and host of the HBO series Last Week Tonight, purchased $15 million dollars in medical debt from 9,000 people, that he bought for<span> </span><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/jun/06/john-oliver-medical-debt-forgiveness-last-week-tonight"><span>“less than half a cent on a dollar</span></a><span>.”</span></span></p> <p><span>And some state officials, like<span> </span></span><a href="https://ctmirror.org/2023/02/02/ct-cancel-medical-debt-ned-lamont-plan/"><span>Governor Ned Lamont of Connecticut</span></a><span>, are currently proposing using federal pandemic aid to cancel billions of dollars in medical debt.</span></p> <p>Yes, these are happy stories of people working together to help their community members, neighbors, and even strangers. </p> <p><span>But this is also a crisis. Millions of Americans carry the burden of outstanding medical debt – An investigation in 2022 by Kaiser Health News and the Kaiser Family Foundation, found that<span> </span></span><a href="https://kffhealthnews.org/news/article/advocates-urging-biden-medical-debt-health-costs/"><span>100 million people</span></a><span><span> </span>across the nation have some type of health care debt. </span><span>Kaiser estimated that in 2019 – the total medical debt in the country was around<span> </span></span><a href="https://kffhealthnews.org/news/article/diagnosis-debt-investigation-100-million-americans-hidden-medical-debt/"><span>$195 BILLION dollars</span></a><span>.</span></p> <p><span>For more on this we spoke with<span> </span><a href="https://twitter.com/Emily_Stewart_">Emily Stewart</a>, Executive Director at<span> </span><a href="https://twitter.com/CommCatHealth">Community Catalyst</a>, a national nonprofit focused on health justice.</span></p>
