D.C. plans to erase millions of dollars in medical debt for thousands of eligible residents, helping ease a burden that can have far reaching impacts across all aspects of life, especially for the city’s non-white residents.
As a part of her proposed 2024 budget released last week, Mayor Muriel Bowser announced a plan to purchase up to $90 million in medical debt, meaning the 90,000 D.C. residents with outstanding payments could see their debts erased this year. D.C. joins a growing movement of local governments across the country making similar moves; last year, Pittsburgh City Council passed a budget that set aside $1 million for debt relief, New Orleans is finalizing a contract to relieve debt in the coming year, and in Cook County, Illinois, residents were set to see their debts paid off at the beginning of 2023.
To be eligible, a resident must be earning less than or equal to four times the federal poverty level, or have medical debt that is at least 5% of their household income.
Non-white D.C. residents are three times more likely to hold medical debt than their white counterparts, according to a press release from Bowser’s office. Like other forms of debt, medical debt can ruin a credit score, making it difficult to buy or even rent a home, get a job, or enroll in higher education. But it can also have direct health impacts — it dissuades someone from seeking additional care, or forces someone to cut back spending on other essentials, such as food, to pay down their debt.
Click here to read the rest of the article written by Colleen Grablick over at DCIST
