MacKenzie Scott gives rare third gift to medical debt relief group

MacKenzie Scott continues to make medical debt relief a priority in her mysterious giving. The continued funding has allowed Sesso “to not have to worry about my next dollar,” she said, and “think more strategically about the narrative around medical debt — she has helped us push that conversation.” Undue Medical Debt was started in 2014 by two former debt collection executives, Jerry Ashton and Craig Antico, who were inspired by the Occupy Wall Street movement’s advocacy for debt relief. Scott’s gifts also have helped improve Undue Medical Debt’s technology to identify people eligible for debt relief and to find hospitals from which it can purchase medical debt, among other things, Sesso said. In the case of Undue Medical Debt, the timing of Scott’s first gifts in 2020 and 2022 seemed to correspond with COVID-relief efforts, she said. Anger over health care costs Scott’s latest gift to Undue Medical Debt comes amid national debates about medical insurance and the cost of medical treatments.