By Noam N. Levey, KFF Health News
Even Backers Say It’s Not Enough.
Underscoring the massive scale of America’s medical debt problem, a New York-based nonprofit has struck a deal to pay off old medical bills for an estimated 20 million people.
Undue Medical Debt, which buys patient debt, is retiring $30 billion worth of unpaid bills in a single transaction with Pendrick Capital Partners, a Virginia-based debt trading company. The average patient debt being retired is $1,100, according to the nonprofit, with some reaching the hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The deal will prevent the debt being sold and protect millions of people from being targeted by collectors. But even proponents of…
