Two recent fundraising campaigns in the United Church of Christ have wiped out more than $13.6 million in medical debt for 13,115 families.
In College Station, Tex., a church youth group wanted to abolish the medical debt of their neighbors. Their efforts were able to forgive all the debt in their county and in 17 others. In Charlottesville Va., a congregation without a pastor led a fundraising campaign to forgive medical debt in their neighboring state of West Virginia. They eliminated bills for people in 52 of that state’s 55 counties.
The young people of Friends Congregational Church, UCC, coordinated the Texas buy. They raised more than $51,000 in a campaign that ended in late April. They sent those funds to RIP Medical Debt, a New York based non-profit that purchases debt for pennies on the dollar, which bought up all the portfolios in their locality, Brazos County, and 17 more.
Sojourners Church, UCC, in Virginia focused its “Neighbors All” project on relieving debt for it nearest neighbors in West Virginia. The money collected by "Neighbors All" relieved the debt of persons or families in West Virginia who make less than twice the poverty level, whose debts are greater than 5 percent of their income, or whose overall debts are greater than their assets.
Read more about these efforts and others nationwide at UCC.org.