Illinois has erased more than $1.4 billion in medical debt for almost 700,000 residents — 694,000 people across all 102 counties — two years after launching the Illinois Medical Debt Relief Program, Gov. JB Pritzker announced at a news conference on Thursday, October 15, at the Cook County Health building in Chicago. The total passes the program's original $1 billion goal by more than $400 million (yaani about 140 crore dollars of debt wiped out).
Source: Capitol News Illinois via Illinois Times
The state achieved the figure while spending less than $10 million in state dollars, through a partnership with Undue Medical Debt, a nonprofit that negotiates with hospitals and health systems to buy or receive portfolios of unpaid medical bills at deeply discounted prices and then cancels them permanently. State officials say every $1 invested in the program has erased more than $100 in debt.
Source: Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services / Governor's office
"Medical debt is a leading cause of bankruptcy," Pritzker said at the news conference. "It can ruin credit, limit financial opportunities, and cause years of uncertainty long after they leave the hospital. That is a symptom of a truly broken system." He said he is committed to continuing the program's funding.
Source: Capitol News Illinois via The Paper
Residents do not apply for the relief. Households are eligible if their income is at or below 400 percent of the federal poverty level, or if their medical debt equals 5 percent or more of their household income. When a qualifying debt is erased, the household receives a letter in the mail saying how much was cancelled. Relief has averaged about $1,200 per person, and in one case more than $900,000 in debt was erased for a single resident.
The statewide program, established under the Illinois Medical Debt Relief Act signed on July 2, 2024, was modelled on Cook County's own medical debt relief initiative, which began in 2022 and has eliminated an additional $1 billion. Together, the state and county programs have erased about $2.4 billion in medical debt for roughly 1.5 million residents, according to state and county officials.