{"id":36452,"date":"2022-11-25T15:57:15","date_gmt":"2022-11-25T15:57:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.brandon.ddtest.info\/multisite-test\/how-one-ohio-city-is-tackling-the-uniquely-american-problem-of-medical-debt\/"},"modified":"2022-11-25T15:57:15","modified_gmt":"2022-11-25T15:57:15","slug":"how-one-ohio-city-is-tackling-the-uniquely-american-problem-of-medical-debt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.brandon.ddtest.info\/multisite-test\/how-one-ohio-city-is-tackling-the-uniquely-american-problem-of-medical-debt\/","title":{"rendered":"How one Ohio city is tackling the \u2018uniquely American problem\u2019 of medical debt"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> \n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>As lawmakers were\u00a0being\u00a0elected and constituents\u00a0were\u00a0voting\u00a0on key ballot measures this month, one Ohio city council passed a measure with the potential to make an enormous financial impact on its community: buying out and relieving the medical debt of its residents.<\/p>\n<p>The Toledo City Council voted 7-5 in early November to use $800,000 of funds from the American Rescue Plan to buy out medical debt for qualifying residents.\u00a0<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr1_ab\">\n<\/aside>\n<p>The Board of County Commissioners for Lucas County, for which Toledo is the county seat, also agreed to match this pledge, raising the funds to $1.6 million.<\/p>\n<p>This measure was spearheaded by Toledo City Councilwoman Michele Grim (D), a longtime public health advocate who was recently elected to the Ohio House of Representatives. Around $240 million worth of debt is expected to be erased.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAn estimated 41 percent of Americans have some kind of medical debt and it\u2019s the No. 1 reason for bankruptcy,\u201d Grim said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd Toledo has been hard hit by the pandemic. It\u2019s also been hard hit by inflation, also rising housing prices and rising rents. Our poverty rate is higher than the national average \u2026 and our wages are stagnant.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Under the measure, Toledo and Lucas County will enter into contract with RIP Medical Debt,\u00a0a nonprofit founded in 2014 with the aim of buying out and abolishing medical debt. The organization will work with hospitals in the area to buy out patients\u2019 debt using the funds put forward by the city and county.<\/p>\n<p>Grim was inspired to pursue\u00a0the measure\u00a0after seeing a similar\u00a0one\u00a0passed in Cooke County, Illinois, which\u00a0also\u00a0partnered with RIP Medical Debt. Toledo\u2019s local government will be the second the organization has partnered with.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr2_ab\">\n<\/aside>\n<p>Since its inception, the organization says it has eliminated more than $7 billion worth of debt for more than 4 million people.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe reason why we\u2019re able to do that is because there is a for-profit debt market that exists that we sort of take advantage of,\u201d Allison Sesso, president and CEO of RIP Medical Debt, said. <\/p>\n<p>Sesso\u2019s organization operates a proprietary method that\u00a0it\u00a0refers\u00a0to as\u00a0a\u00a0\u201cdebt engine.\u201d\u00a0It\u00a0buys out existing debt from participating hospitals\u00a0for pennies on the dollar\u00a0and analyzes the debt files to determine who is eligible for debt relief.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr3_ab\">\n<\/aside>\n<p>Patients are eligible if their\u00a0income is\u00a0400 percent of the national poverty level or\u00a0if they\u00a0have medical debt which totals more than 5 percent of their annual income.<\/p>\n<p>According to Sesso, about 80 to 90 percent of the patients\u00a0the organization\u00a0sees\u00a0in the debt files qualify for\u00a0its\u00a0debt relief.<\/p>\n<p>Individuals cannot apply to RIP Medical Debt for relief. Eligible patients are unaware that they are being considered and simply receive a letter in the mail informing them that their debt has been bought out and will never be collected.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr4_ab\">\n<\/aside>\n<p>Among her constituents, Grim said about 41,000 are estimated to be eligible for debt relief.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMedical debt is a uniquely American problem,\u201d Grim said. \u201cAnd I really can\u2019t think of another better way to use our American Rescue dollars than to aid in the economic recovery of our constituents.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) stated in\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/files.consumerfinance.gov\/f\/documents\/cfpb_medical-debt-burden-in-the-united-states_report_2022-03.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">a report released earlier this year<\/a>\u00a0that medical debt is the most common collection type on credit reports. Though this does not necessarily mean that medical debt is the most common in collections, it is disproportionately represented in credit reports when compared to other common forms of debt.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs of 2021, 58 percent of all third-party debt collection tradelines were for medical debt, making medical debt the most common debt collection tradeline on credit records. The next most common collections tradeline was telecommunications debt, at only 15 percent of tradelines,\u201d the agency said in the report.<\/p>\n<p>According to the CFPB, the amount of U.S. medical debt currently in collections ranges from $81 billion to $140 billion. The exact amount is difficult to ascertain, as not all medical debt collections are made available to consumer reporting companies.<\/p>\n<p>As the agency noted, collection tactics\u00a0for such debt have long been criticized for being aggressive and convoluted, with some patients facing legal action from hospitals or others being erroneously contacted by collection agencies despite not actually having any outstanding fees.<\/p>\n<p>Since the Toledo City Council voted to pass the measure, both Grim and Sesso say they have been contacted by lawmakers around the country interested in possibly doing the same thing for their own constituents.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"thehill-promo-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/policy\/technology\/3749935-musk-says-twitter-will-relaunch-verified-service-to-include-gold-grey-and-blue-check-marks\/\" class=\"thehill-promo-link__link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><br \/>\n\t\tMusk says Twitter will relaunch verified service; to include gold, grey and blue check marks\t<\/a><br \/>\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/policy\/healthcare\/3748779-white-house-resists-declaring-emergency-as-flu-viruses-surge-in-children\/\" class=\"thehill-promo-link__link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><br \/>\n\t\tWhite House resists declaring emergency as flu, viruses surge in children\t<\/a><br \/>\n\t<\/aside>\n<p>Sesso said RIP Medical Debt is actively speaking to a handful of other local governments, though her organization likely won\u2019t move forward with all of them.\u00a0According to Sesso, partnerships are partly dependent on medical providers actually being interested in having a conversation about buying out patients\u2019 medical debt.<\/p>\n<p>As Grim heads to the Ohio state legislature, she says she would like to introduce a similar measure at the state level, though she acknowledges that what was passed in Toledo is only a small step toward addressing a much larger issue.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr5_ab\">\n<\/aside>\n<p>\u201cAs a local legislator or even as a state legislator, I can\u2019t fix our broken health care system. It\u2019s a national problem,\u201d Grim said. \u201cThis is just the first step. This is something small and simple that we can do to help aid in economic recovery of Toledoans and Lucas County residents. And, you know, Washington, D.C., doesn\u2019t have a plan to eliminate medical debt, but Toledo, Ohio, does.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/__i\/rss\/rd\/articles\/CBMiemh0dHBzOi8vdGhlaGlsbC5jb20vcG9saWN5L2hlYWx0aGNhcmUvMzc0ODQyMy1ob3ctb25lLW9oaW8tY2l0eS1pcy10YWNrbGluZy10aGUtdW5pcXVlbHktYW1lcmljYW4tcHJvYmxlbS1vZi1tZWRpY2FsLWRlYnQv0gF-aHR0cHM6Ly90aGVoaWxsLmNvbS9wb2xpY3kvaGVhbHRoY2FyZS8zNzQ4NDIzLWhvdy1vbmUtb2hpby1jaXR5LWlzLXRhY2tsaW5nLXRoZS11bmlxdWVseS1hbWVyaWNhbi1wcm9ibGVtLW9mLW1lZGljYWwtZGVidC9hbXAv?oc=5\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As lawmakers were\u00a0being\u00a0elected and constituents\u00a0were\u00a0voting\u00a0on key ballot measures this month, one Ohio city council passed a measure with the potential to make an enormous financial impact on its community: buying out and relieving the medical debt of its residents. The Toledo City Council voted 7-5 in early November to use $800,000 of funds from the &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":36453,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[161],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.brandon.ddtest.info\/multisite-test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36452"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.brandon.ddtest.info\/multisite-test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.brandon.ddtest.info\/multisite-test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.brandon.ddtest.info\/multisite-test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.brandon.ddtest.info\/multisite-test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36452"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.brandon.ddtest.info\/multisite-test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36452\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.brandon.ddtest.info\/multisite-test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36453"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.brandon.ddtest.info\/multisite-test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36452"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.brandon.ddtest.info\/multisite-test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36452"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.brandon.ddtest.info\/multisite-test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36452"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}