A partnership of four charitable organizations will cut $4 million in medical debt for more than 2,400 people in the region, officials announced today. It will change lives, they agreed.
“Medical debt can be devastating,” said Darrin Goss, president and CEO of the Coastal Community Foundation (CCF). “We are dedicated to creating more opportunities for economic mobility in our region. We are proud to come together with our affiliate organizations and relive this financial burden for members of our community.”
The foundation joined with Waccamaw Community Foundation, the Frances P. Bunnelle Foundation and the Jewish Endowment Foundation of South Carolina to abolish medical debt through an investment with the national group RIP Medical Debt, which buys medical debt.
Here’s how it will work: For one or two cents invested for every dollar owed by a qualified individual identified by RIP Medical Debt, it will buy the debt to erase the person’s obligation. Not only will that relieve a great burden and a lot of stress for impoverished South Carolinians, it will open new opportunities so they can rebuild their lives and start qualifying for car loans, new dwellings and more, Goss said. The days of credit applications being flagged and denied may disappear.
For those identified as candidates by RIP Medical Debt to get the debt relief, it will be like winning a medical debt sweepstakes. Sometime in the days ahead, they’ll get letters notifying them that their crippling debt, which can be more than $5,000 for a quarter of those impoverished, has been erased.
“These debts force people to make impossible decisions between food and medicine, between seeking necessary medical care or keeping a roof over their heads,” RIP Medical Debt CEO and President Allison Sesso said in a statement. “This campaign will help thousands of people by providing a lifeline and reminding them that someone cares.”
According to CCF, South Carolina has an abnormally high level of people with medical debt. Some 22 of every 100 adults have some kind of medical debt, they said.
Today’s announcement outlined how a $33,717 donation from CCF and its affiliates will erase $3.14 million in medical debt. An additional $1 million in debt relief is expected through additional donations.
People can’t apply for their debt to be relieved because RIP Medical Debt uses a source-based process that identifies those who qualify. They must live at or below four times of the federal poverty level or have debts that are 5% or more of their annual income. They must also live in Beaufort, Berkeley, Charleston, Colleton, Dorchester, Georgetown, Hampton, Horry or Jasper counties.
The impetus for today’s announcement came after CCF donor Gary Lamberson of Charleston last year retired $7.7 million in medical debt for 1,481 South Carolinians through RIP Medical Debt.
“My message to others is simple: The payoff of this program is so great that truly any amount will make a very big impact on people’s lives right here where we live,” he said in a CCF publication.
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