LEE KRAMER'S ROOM: With Views

[jbsliverer]

As she should. Meanwhile Hobbs does her thing.

Hobbs to use federal funds for program to erase medical debt of Arizonans
Howard Fischer, Capitol Media Services//March 4, 2024//
https://azcapitoltimes.com/news/2024/03/04/hobbs-to-use-federal-funds-for-program-to-erase-medical-debt-of-arizonans/
Arizona will use up to $30 million in federal Covid relief funds to pay off up to $2 billion in medical bills owed by state residents.

Jeff Smedsrud, a board member of RIP Medical Debt, said Monday his charity will use the state dollars to buy up the unpaid medical bills from hospitals, health care providers and debt collectors.

More to the point, Smedsrud, a Scottsdale resident, said his organization can usually do that for pennies on the dollar. And that, he said, means the state’s money effectively is multiplied.

The program, announced by Smedsrud and Gov. Katie Hobbs, is designed to benefit anyone with medical debt whose income is less than 400% of the federal poverty level. That is currently $124,800 for a family of four.

Also eligible are those whose debt is 5% or more of their annual income. That would aid those who have higher income levels than the cutoff but much higher debt than they may be able to handle.

Those, said Smedsrud, are the only qualifications.

“We don’t pick elderly people versus younger people, people of color versus not,” he said.

Most significant, no one actually needs to apply.

In fact, you can’t.

“We work with FinThrive, a subsidiary of TransUnion, one of the main reporting agencies,” said Daniel Lampert, a spokesman for RIP. “We buy relevant income data from them to confirm who qualifies for our program in the files we review from providers of past-due medical debts.”

Smedsrud said only after the debt is paid off does the patient get a note that the debt is gone and that the credit bureaus have been notified.

He also said that the patients are not told who has provided the money. That anonymous donation, Smedsrud said, means that the debt relief does not become a taxable event for the recipient.

And it is at that point, he said, that “a beautiful thing happens.”

“Those for whom the debt is erased begin to engage in preventive care, which saves money,” Smedsrud said.

“They begin to lead a healthier life,” he said. “They become more likely to start a business, which is good for the economy.”

Smedsrud said that since the organization was founded in 2014 it has erased nearly $11 billion in medical debt owed by about 7 million individuals, some through individual donations and some through partnerships with local governments like Cook County, Ill., where Chicago is located. The Arizona deal, he said, is the largest in the organization’s history.....


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