These Local Governments Are Using Federal Aid to Cancel Medical Debt

From Oscar Perry Abello / Next City: With funding from city governments, the nonprofit RIP Medical Debt acquires and cancels medical debt by negotiating directly with hospitals. The only requirement is being under 400% of the federal poverty line and no application is necessary.

Click here to read the full story on Next City.

Issue Areas:

Health and Wellbeing, Medical Debt

Impact Areas:

Equity, Health and Wellness

Actors:

Government, Nonprofit / NGO

Communities Served:

—

Strategies:

Easing Economic Burdens for Individuals, Reallocating Government / Public Financing

Success Factors:

Addressing Underlying Issues, Meeting People Where They Are At, Practicing Human Centered Design, Providing Cash Instead Of Goods/Services, Resilience, Using Creative Financing

Geographic Region:

North America

Countries:

United States

Date:

November 22, 2022

More Resources:

How tax credits and social finance are building a healthy future for Nova Scotians

From Diane Berard / Future of Good: Novia Scotia, Canada, created community economic development investment funds with a 35% tax credit to investors to help small businesses that need capital but don’t qualify for bank loans. The cooperative FarmWorks brings...

Conversation with Ayomide Fatunde

Ayomide Fatunde is a Global Council member at WEAll. She is a Nigerian-American Regenerative Specialist with cross-cutting interests that span from battery thermal management to esotericism, skipping over to post-growth economics and then looping around to database architecture before taking...

Results From The City That Just Gave Away Cash

From Emma Peaslee / NPR: A guaranteed income pilot program in Stockton, California, resulted in improved mental health and even increased full-time employment rates. The extra cash gave recipients who were struggling with poverty the mental and financial bandwidth to...

Climate disasters hit poor people hardest. There’s an obvious solution to that

From Sigal Samuel / Vox: An effective way to help those most vulnerable to climate disasters is by providing just-in-time cash transfers right before a disaster hits for them to use as they see fit for resilience and climate change...

Conversation with Vitor Del Rey

Vitor Del Ray is the Principal of Instituto GUETTO, an organization he founded to combat structural and institutional racism by empowering Black, Brown, and Indigenous individuals for the workforce and promoting social mobility. Through initiatives like Mapa Preto da Educação...

Conversation with Karina Víquez

Karina Viquez is the Program Director of the Certificate in Regenerative Entrepreneurship at the University for International Cooperation (UCI) in Costa Rica. She has over 10 years of experience playing key roles in impact learning, regenerative program design, development project...