Let's Cancel Medical Debt in Arlington!

Remarks delivered to the Arlington County Board on October 19, 2024

I’m here today to talk about the issue of medical debt.

According to recent studies, medical debt is a $220 billion dollar problem in the United States. 20 million people – one in twelve adults in the US – owe more than $250 in debt, and 6% of adults owe more than $1000 in debt.

The burden of medical debt disproportionately impacts Black Americans, disabled people, low-income households, and people without health insurance. People with long-term medical debt are most likely to be part of the 44% of Americans who are living paycheck to paycheck and are unable to save enough money to cover an unexpected medical expense.

People with medical debt are also more likely to skip medical tests, leave prescriptions unfilled — or avoid seeing a doctor completely — out of fear of taking on more debt. This, of course, often leads to worse health outcomes and more expensive treatments down the road.

Medical debt is a national crisis. However, there are ways that localities such as Arlington can help reduce the burden of medical debt for people in our community. One of these is investing in debt forgiveness through the nonprofit organization Undue Medical Debt.

This organization buys bundles of medical debt via debt brokerages - for pennies on the dollar - and then cancels this debt entirely. This is debt that would normally be sold to collections agencies and lead to months or even years of harassing phone calls. Undue Medical Debt simply wipes it away.

While much of this work is donor funded, in recent years, local governments have started partnering with Undue Medical Debt to help their constituents. This list started with Cook County, Illinois, and has grown to include cities like New Orleans, Cleveland, Akron, New York City, and recently Washington D.C. In total, these localities have eliminated billions of dollars in medical debt with relatively small investments.

One of my colleagues in the Arlington Medicare For All Coalition, which I represent, recently reached out to Undue Medical Debt to ask about debt forgiveness in Arlington, and they informed us that they had access to $1.7 million in medical debt here in Arlington that they could buy for about $10,000. I’m here today to formally propose this idea to the county board. $10,000 is a relatively small investment in county funds that would help thousands of struggling people in our community.

Of course, a universal single-payer system would eliminate the concept of medical debt entirely, which is why our coalition has been campaigning more broadly for national, improved Medicare For All. However, we also recognize that federal universal healthcare legislation is, unfortunately, many years if not decades from becoming a reality. That’s why we believe it is equally important to try and help people now who are suffering under the burden of medical debt.

I hope you will take this proposal for consideration and I thank you for your time.