of ARPA funds to effectively get rid of $1 billion in people\u2019s medical debt. Grim said she modeled Toledo\u2019s plan closely after Cook County\u2019s.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nAllison Sesso, president of RIP Medical Debt, said that more local governments have reached out to the group to use ARPA funds to wipe out medical debt after learning about Toledo and Cook County\u2019s efforts.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cI think it was sort of a no-brainer for anyone that\u2019s focused on health equity and the recovery, post-COVID, on their communities, to get rid of this medical debt burden from people as quickly as possible,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nRIP Medical Debt was founded in 2014 by Craig Antico and Jerry Ashton, who are former debt collections executives. Sesso said the pandemic brought renewed attention on medical debt and problems with the U.S. health care system in general.<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cPart of the equation when you\u2019re thinking as a policymaker in terms of solving these problems for individuals is that we are seeing rising costs of living, all this inflation, and all these other things that are making it harder and harder for families to make ends meet,\u201d she said. \u201c \u2026 It\u2019s an American experience for you to go to a health care provider and be thinking about how you\u2019re going to finance that healthcare. And even if you can get yourself on a payment plan and it doesn\u2019t turn into debt, it still means that you\u2019re doing it at great sacrifice.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nBrady Chalmers, an administrative analyst in the office of Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, said Preckwinkle took this approach because she wanted to focus on measures to alleviate poverty and promote public health. RIP Medical Debt was the organization that seemed best positioned to achieve this policy at the scale Cook County needed. Chalmers added that one of the advantages of the action was how much further the money could go when it costs pennies on the dollar to buy the debt.<\/span><\/p>\n\u201c$12 million buying a billion dollars worth of debt is a really good bang for the taxpayer dollar,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\nChalmers said that this could make it a little bit easier for people to make economic progress.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cHopefully they get an improvement in their credit scores and that allows them access to financial tools that they wouldn\u2019t otherwise have,\u201d he said. \u201cWe also want them to feel comfortable using the hospital system. We don\u2019t want to live in a world where people are choosing between rent and going to the doctor when they need both because they have some old debt. This allows us to free these folks from that burden.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/a><\/p><\/div>\n