The cost of health care in the U.S. has grown worse in recent years as Americans continue taking on unprecedented levels of medical debt. The issue ha

Medical debt is a 'uniquely American problem' caused by a 'very broken' system, expert explains

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2021-06-21 23:30:04

The cost of health care in the U.S. has grown worse in recent years as Americans continue taking on unprecedented levels of medical debt.

The issue has gotten so bad that one New York-based 501 charity, RIP Medical Health, uses donations to buy up people’s medical debt. The organization recently announced a purchase of $278 million in medical debt owed by roughly 82,000 patients in the Tennessee and Virginia regions.

“Medical debt is the no. 1 cause of bankruptcy in the United States, which is something that’s obviously a uniquely American problem,” Allison Sesso, executive director of RIP Medical Debt, said on Yahoo Finance Live (video above). “So we’re out there trying to give people relief from this economic burden. We’ve got donors that are excited across the country to do more of this debt relief. That number — 278 million — we’re very proud of that, but we have a lot more debt relief ahead of us.”

RIP Medical Debt’s recent purchase involved buying people’s medical bills directly from the Ballad Health hospital system, which has previously been criticized for using lawsuits to collect on medical debt. Sesso noted that most of the patients affected by RIP Medical Debt’s latest move are considered low-income.