Arizona Erased $1 Billion In Medical Debt. 670,000 People Didn't Have To Do A Thing.
Governor Katie Hobbs announced that more than $1 billion in medical debt has been erased for 670,963 Arizonans through a partnership between her administration and national nonprofit Undue Medical Debt, with no state funds used to achieve it. This week, debt relief letters for more than 200,000 Arizonans began arriving in mailboxes in a branded Undue Medical Debt envelope, notifying recipients that some or all of their outstanding medical bills had been cancelled. There is no application process and no action required. To qualify, a resident must have medical debt equal to at least 5 percent of their annual income, or earn at or below 400 percent of the federal poverty level, roughly $100,000 for a family of three. Undue Medical Debt purchases large portfolios of delinquent medical bills from hospitals and collection agencies at a fraction of face value and cancels them entirely, meaning a relatively small investment can eliminate an enormous total of outstanding debt. Before the initiative began, Arizona's total estimated medical debt stood at approximately $2.4 billion. More than $1 billion of that is now gone.
The letters that arrived in mailboxes across the state this week carried stories with them. A disabled combat veteran in Casa Grande who had to use an emergency room outside the VA system and was devastated by the bill. A widow in Chandler and breast cancer survivor raising four children on her own who said the relief lifted a weight that had been pressing on her chest for years and reminded her that she is not invisible. A paramedic in Payson injured in the line of duty, struggling on workers compensation, who said thank you to a program he had no idea was coming. A single mother in Tolleson who had experienced the traumatic loss of a baby and received the hospital bill the day she returned home, and who had not had the capacity to address the financial aspect while processing her grief. A lung transplant recipient in Phoenix on a fixed social security income who said this was a blessing she could not put into words. A resident of San Tan Valley who had just had a lung removed and cried tears of joy when she opened what she expected to be another impossible bill. Governor Hobbs said the initiative was restoring hope, dignity, and peace of mind for hundreds of thousands of Arizonans, and that it was critical to achieving the state's promise. The letters do not ask anything of the people who receive them. They only deliver news.
