Gov. Roy Cooper announced Monday that 2 million North Carolinians will have their medical debt forgiven after all the state’s 99 acute hospitals signed up for a landmark program designed to wipe out debt for low- and middle-income patients.
The announcement comes after last month’s federal approval of the Cooper administration’s plan to forgive up to $4 billion in hospital debt for millions of people in the state. Under the plan, federal payments to hospitals from the Health Access and Stabilization Program (HASP) would increase in exchange for the hospitals eliminating old debt and helping patients avoid new ones.
“This is a win, win, win,” said Cooper. “It’ll help our hospitals,…
