An estimated $500 million of medical debt could be eliminated for 150,000 lower-income residents with the new pilot program in LA County, according to the Department of Public Health.
Medical debt is often bundled and sold at steep discounts to companies who gain profit from collecting that debt, according to the LA County Board of Supervisors.The founders of Undue Medical Debt, who used to collect the debt, are now canceling people’s debt by donations. The County has not yet clarified the eligibility for the pilot program, but it was set to target the “lowest-income residents and the working poor who have catastrophic amounts of medical debt,” said Dr. Naman Shah of L.A. County Public Health.Get Los Angeles's latest local news on crime, entertainment, weather, schools, COVID, cost of living and more. Here's your go-to source for today's LA news.Medical debt for LA County residents exceeds $2.