![]() Residents must owe for health care received on or after March 30, 2020. To be eligible for debt help, Pittsburghers would have to have health care debts that are more than 5% of their income, or have a household income that ranges from $13,590 (for a one-person household) to $46,630 (for a household of eight). Toledo announced last month it will grant RIP Medical Debt $1.6 million to forgive up to $240 million. Cook County allocated $12 million in federal money, with plans to forgive as much as $1 billion in debt. Pittsburgh’s plan would follow the lead of Cook County, Illinois - which includes Chicago - and Toledo, Ohio where local governments launched similar programs this year to partner with RIP Medical Debt using federal coronavirus aid. “With proper process, this can be legal,” he told WESA. He said he would work with Wilson to determine the legal path forward. RIP Medical Debt buys debts the same way other collection companies do - except instead of trying to profit, they notify consumers that their debt has been cleared.Ĭity Council Solicitor Dan Friedson said he supports the program but was not yet sure it had legal standing. The bill proposes hiring RIP Medical Debt, a New York-based nonprofit medical debt collector, to purchase dischargeable health care debt from hospitals in bundles. "With this legislation, I look forward to making Pittsburgh a national leader in reducing the burden of medical debt on our citizens." “Coming out of this global pandemic, Pittsburghers deserve such direct relief," Wilson said during a press conference before he sponsored the bill Tuesday. Under a proposal by City Councilor Bobby Wilson, the city would spend $1 million through a nonprofit medical debt collector, which would buy up and discharge eligible debt for pennies on the dollar. A bill introduced to Pittsburgh City Council Tuesday would commit federal pandemic aid toward relieving about $115 million of health care debt.
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