97,000 Connecticut Residents Just Got Letters Saying Their Medical Debt Was Gone
Governor Ned Lamont announced that more than 97,000 Connecticut residents would begin receiving letters in the first week of June informing them that some or all of their outstanding medical debt had been erased, in the fourth round of a state initiative that has now cancelled a total of more than $513 million in medical bills for over 252,000 residents since the program launched in 2024. The fourth round alone is wiping out nearly $315 million in debt, and it requires nothing from the recipients: if you qualify, you simply get a letter in the mail telling you the amount that has been cancelled and the fact that you no longer owe it. To qualify, a resident's medical debt must represent at least 5 percent of their annual income, or their household income must be at or below four times the federal poverty level, targeting the program precisely at the people carrying the heaviest financial burden relative to their means. The initiative is run through a partnership with Undue Medical Debt, a national nonprofit, and is funded by $6.5 million in American Rescue Plan Act money that Connecticut lawmakers set aside specifically for this purpose.
Governor Lamont said medical debt is a burden carried by families in every Connecticut community but that it disproportionately affects working-class families, and that the program is designed to remove a financial obstacle that can interfere with people's ability to seek care in the first place by making them afraid of the bills that will follow. The program's mechanics take advantage of the way medical debt is bought and sold: Undue Medical Debt acquires large portfolios of outstanding medical bills from hospitals and collection agencies, typically at a small fraction of their face value, and then cancels the debt entirely rather than collecting on it, meaning a relatively small investment of public funds can eliminate a much larger total amount of outstanding bills. Connecticut is now targeting a full cancellation of roughly $650 million in medical debt for its residents by the end of the year, and at least seven other states including Vermont, New Jersey, North Carolina, Rhode Island, Illinois, Delaware, and Arizona have established similar programs that advocates hope will continue spreading until medical debt stops being the leading cause of personal bankruptcy in the United States.
