L.A. County wants to buy — and forgive — your medical debt. Here’s how that would work
LA TimesSaddled with medical debt? The county government on Tuesday became the latest municipality to consider wiping out residents’ long-lingering medical bills by buying up the debt at a steep discount. “If L.A. County stepped in and bought out our residents’ medical debt for them, we could eliminate their debt for millions of dollars, not billions,” Hahn said. The vote follows a county report released in June that found 810,000 county residents — roughly 1 in 10 adults— have outstanding medical debt. “And so there’s reasons to think that abolishing really old medical debt may not be as consequential as we would think.” Yin said patients would see a greater benefit to their bottom lines if governments bought the debt directly from the hospital early on when patients are still working to pay it off — though this would be a much more expensive undertaking for the county.
History of this topic
Hospitals that pursue patients for unpaid bills will have to tell L.A. County
LA Times
L.A. County plans to put $5 million toward wiping out medical debt
LA Times
A growing wave of local governments are erasing billions in medical debts
NPR
Detroit-area county will use federal money to erase medical debts
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