When the Rev. Chris Miller heard about Project Jubilee from the regional organization of Presbyterian churches, he knew it would be perfect for his congregation. Trinity Presbyterian Church Springfield’s biggest focus is on mission work, in an effort to “show God’s love in clear and specific actions to the world around us.”
“Scripture teaches us to be imitators of Christ. And Christ was all about reaching out to those that society pushed to the margins. He showed them love, and then he helped them reconnect with the community,” Miller said.
Trinity Presbyterian Church and other churches within the Synod of Mid-America raised almost $58,000 in order to acquire and forgive $13.3 million of medical debt for low-income families. The congregations worked with RIP Medical Debt to relieve nearly 15,000 people of medical debt in Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky and Tennessee.
Thirty families from Greene County are included in the debt forgiveness, along with 18 others from the surrounding area.
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The program’s premise stems from Old Testament teachings.
“The name ‘jubilee’ is taken from the Old Testament, Hebrew scripture, when God commands the people of Israel to help the poor and forgive their debts,” Miller said. “It’s something God said should happen every seven years.”
About one in ten adults in America — 23 million people — owe at least $250 in medical debt, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation analysis of 2020 Census data. In addition, people who live in rural areas and those who are near-poor or poor are more likely to owe medical debt.
“No one plans to have a procedure or hopes that today is the day they’re going to have to go to the emergency room. That’s not something anybody chooses,” Miller said. “Yet, because of the realities of the health care industry and the health care system in our nation, individuals often end up with tremendous amounts of debt. And combine that with the predatory nature of the debt marketplace, and this is something that destroys people’s lives, can wipe out years of savings.”
Letters that inform people of their debt forgiveness are still being sent out by RIP Medical Debt, and Daniel Lempert, vice president of communications for RIP Medical Debt, encouraged people to open letters if they receive them — “This is real and not a scam and if they receive an RIP letter it should be opened.”
According to the press release, RIP purchases and abolishes medical debts for people who are four times (or below) the federal poverty level, or have a medical debt that is 5% or more of their gross annual income. The debt forgiveness is not taxable.
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Trinity Presbyterian Church’s other missions include advocacy work with the LGBTQ+ community, poverty and housing insecurity, youth and young adults in crisis, disaster relief and international development. They also aim to recognize and address the systems in place that keep people in poverty.
“Yes, it’s about helping individual families and to hopefully give them a pretty fantastic Christmas gift. But also, to take concrete actions to address a system that does not necessarily have the best track record of doing what is in the best interest of folks, especially those who are perhaps in a lower income bracket,” Miller said. “It’s our hope that this can be a step in the right direction in ending some of those cycles of poverty for some families in our community.”
Susan Szuch is the health and public policy reporter for the Springfield News-Leader. Follow her on Twitter @szuchsm. Story idea? Email her at sszuch@gannett.com.
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