Oakland County’s latest round of medical debt relief eliminated debt for 6,300 residents, totaling nearly $6 million.
The county is partnering with Undue Medical Debt, which officials said has now provided $15 million in medical debt relief to more than 20,000 residents since the partnership began in 2023.
The work is funded by $2 million that Oakland County received from the American Rescue Plan Act.
“This initiative is about giving people a second chance,” Oakland County Executive Dave Coulter said in a press release. “By eliminating this burden for thousands more residents, we’re helping people regain their financial footing.”
Medical debt impacts about 114,000 Oakland County residents, Coulter said.
Courtney Werpy Story, vice president of government initiatives at Undue Medical Debt — previously called RIP Medical Debt — said the group plans on using the funding to relieve even more debt in the county.
Undue Medical Debt buys medical debt in large portfolios at a steep discount from debt collectors who have all but given up on recouping the money. Then, instead of pursuing payment, the group simply forgives the debt.
Because the organization buys distressed debt in bulk, it's able to provide relief worth far more than what the county paid.
“It's a really powerful return on their initial $2 million investment, and we're not done yet,” Story said. “The contract runs through the end of the year, and we anticipate announcing a couple more rounds of relief before the end of the year.”
In order to be eligible for the program, residents must make less than four times the federal poverty level or have medical debt that is more than 5% of their annual income. Residents helped by this round of relief started receiving notification letters from Undue Medical Debt on March 9.
Undue Medical Debt also has contracts with Wayne and Kalamazoo counties, in addition to the state of Michigan. The state dedicated $4.5 million to the effort in 2023 and announced in July that it had provided $144 million in relief to 210,000 residents across the state.
Earlier this month, the state Senate passed a package of bills meant to help reduce medical debt. The package includes requiring hospitals to create financial assistance programs for some low income patients, and stopping medical debt from impacting someone’s credit score.
Story said medical debt can harm people’s mental and physical health. She said that forgiving debt is a good first step, but there need to be systemic changes as well.
“We know that our work on the abolishment level is an excellent first step and is providing that immediate relief that families need right now,” she said. “We also know that it's not a silver bullet, that there's a lot more work to be done. And a lot of that work is on the upstream side of things.”
