Gov. Katie Hobbs' office says it's partnered with a nonprofit to erase $642 million in medical debt owed by almost half-a-million Arizonans.

Another more than $200 million in medical debt has been wiped out for Arizonans. And the recipients are going to know who to thank: Gov. Katie Hobbs.

The new figure was announced Monday by Allison Sasso. She’s the president and CEO of Undue Medical Debt, a company that agreed earlier this year to use some $10 million in state American Rescue Plan COVID relief dollars to buy up medical debt from hospitals and doctors for a few pennies on the dollar, eliminating a negative mark on the credit reports of those who racked up the bills.

All totaled, according to the governor’s office, the program has so far erased $642 million owed by more than 485,000 Arizonans.

  • ynthrepic@lemmy.world
    2·
    2 days ago

    Totally think that makes sense, but also what a waste of admin that really shouldn’t have to exist in the first place, if people never when in to debt to begin with.

    We’re updating old code instead of rewriting it from scratch. Has to be done, but I wish we were working on the new version in the background with any kind of seriousness.

    In theory, insurance companies shouldn’t be putting people in debt. They’re the ones who should be in debt to the pharmaceutical companies and the government because they’re paying out more claims than they can afford to cover with their revenue from premiums.

    This being true would force the government and insurance companies to both be fighting the pharmaceutical companies for better prices and for accelerating decelopnent of generic medicines. Also, it would make putting research funding into long-term cures rather than lifelong treatments a more worthwhile gamble compared to now.