North Carolina, under Dem Gov, effort wipes out $6.5B in medical debt for 2.5M people

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https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/north-carolina-effort-wipes-65b-medical-debt-25m-126489110


North Carolina effort wipes out $6.5B in medical debt for 2.5M people
Officials say a North Carolina government initiative is eliminating over $6.5 billion in medical debt for more than 2.5 million residents


RALEIGH, N.C. -- RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — More than 2.5 million North Carolina residents are getting over $6.5 billion in medical debt eliminated through a state government effort that offered hospitals extra Medicaid funds from Washington if they gave patients the financial relief and implemented policies to discourage future liabilities.

Democratic Gov. Josh Stein, the state health department secretary and other officials announced Monday results so far from what then-Gov. Roy Cooper unveiled 15 months ago as a first-of-its-kind initiative.

While helping almost one-quarter of North Carolina residents, Stein said the effort has exceeded expectations in giving individuals and families a second chance to succeed financially after medical crises. Officials previously estimated it could help about 2 million people get rid of $4 billion in debt. The debt that had been held by hospitals, and are usually difficult to recover, will be pulled from credit reports, the governor said.

“This is life-changing news for so many families,” Stein said, adding that recipients on average will have $2,600 erased. “No one chooses to have a heart attack or get diagnosed with a chronic condition — you just have to deal with it. Today’s announcement will free people from the financial stress so that they can focus on getting healthy.” Another news conference speaker described patients who avoided services or threatened to halt treatments to prevent debt from accumulating on themselves or their family.

Hospitals that agreed to participate have already alerted many patients to tell them their debt is essentially canceled, state health officials said Monday. And Undue Medical Debt, a national group working on the effort and taking over some hospital liabilities, plans to send 255,000 notices this week to other recipients.