RIP Medical Debt
RIP Medical Debt is an Rye, New York-based 501(c)(3) charity[1] focused on the elimination of personal medical debt. Founded in 2014 by former debt collection executives Jerry Ashton and Craig Antico,[2] the charity purchases medical debt on the debt collection market, and then forgives the debt.[3] The charity states that they pay about $1 for every $100 of debt that they purchase. The founders were inspired by medical debt elimination efforts by Occupy Wall Street.[4] The charity gained attention in 2016 when the TV show Last Week Tonight with John Oliver used them to turn $60,000 into $15 million of debt forgiveness.[5] As of February, 2021, they state that they have forgiven debts for over 2,000,000 individuals and families, totaling USD$2,986,530,237.[6]
In January 2020, professional basketball player Trae Young of the Atlanta Hawks donated $10,000 to this non-profit to abolish a total of $1,000,000 in medical debt.[7]
In December 2020, MacKenzie Scott, former wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, donated $50 million.[8]
References[]
- ^ Samuel, Leah (June 6, 2016). "Inside the medical debt charity that John Oliver just made famous". Stat. Retrieved 28 November 2020.
- ^ Overall, Michael (26 November 2020). "A Tulsa couple we're thankful for tells us how they did it". Tulsa World. Retrieved 28 November 2020.
- ^ Esch, Mary (December 24, 2018). "Secret Santas: Charity buys and erases past-due medical debt". Associated Press. Retrieved 28 November 2020.
- ^ Goldman, David (June 6, 2016). "John Oliver makes 'TV history' by forgiving $15 million in medical debt". CNN Business. Retrieved 28 November 2020.
- ^ "Collecting to Forgive". RIP Medical Debt. Retrieved 13 February 2021.
- ^ Habersham, Raisa (January 8, 2020). "Hawks player Trae Young cancels $1M in medical debt for Atlanta families". The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Retrieved August 13, 2021.
- ^ Paavola, Alia (December 16, 2020). "'A game changer': RIP Medical Debt gets $50M donation". Becker's Hospital Review. Retrieved August 13, 2021.
External links[]
- Official website
- RIP Medical Debt at GuideStar
- Organizations based in the United States
- Organizations established in 2014
- Rye, New York