Church says it paid off all available medical debt for entire state of New Mexico
WASHINGTON (SBG) — An Episcopal church in New Mexico says it paid off all of the available medical debt for all of New Mexico, as well as several counties in Arizona.
St. Bede’s Episcopal Church in Santa Fe, N.M. says that through donations, and partnering up with nonprofit RIP Medical Debt, it was able to pay off $1,380,119.87 in medical debt belonging to 782 households. According to its website, RIP Medical Debt is a group dedicated to finding families with medical debt whose incomes are less than twice the poverty level, as well as families whose liabilities exceed their total assets, known as insolvency.
I don’t know if this parish has ever funded a program with such a great impact. We were able to do it because every week we set aside 10% of donations to the church for outreach. Prioritizing service to others is our gospel imperative," said Rev. Catherine Volland.
Much like a collection agency, RIP Medical Debt buys debt for a fraction of the cost and then pays it off with donations, like the $15,000 donation from St. Bede's. The church's donation of $15,000 was used to pay off the nearly $1.4 million in debt belonging to all New Mexicans and Arizonians. In Arizona, debt was paid off for each owing family in Apache, Gila, Graham, Mohave, and Navajo Counties, as well as part of Maricopa County.
Each family impacted will receive a letter in the mail telling them they no longer owe the debt. The letter, in part, says:
St. Bede’s Episcopal Church has paid off the medical debt you have been struggling with for the past number of years. No strings attached.
RIP Medical Debt then contacts credit agencies to verify the medical payments while clearing the person's credit history.
A person whose medical debt was paid off responded to the church, saying:
I was having a hard time trying to figure out how I was going to pay all this amount of money and it’s not been easy finding a job especially when you have two kids and with this pandemic going on. It has really been a very hard year for me and for everyone. I would love to thank personally that special person that helped me with my account. I am so thankful and I just want to say God bless you always.