RIP Medical Debt is a

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–based

501(c)(3) A 501(c)(3) organization is a United States corporation, trust, unincorporated association or other type of organization exempt from federal income tax under section 501(c)(3) of Title 26 of the United States Code. It is one of the 29 types of 50 ...

charity focused on the elimination of personal

medical debt Medical debt refers to debt incurred by individuals due to health care costs and related expenses. Medical debt is different from other forms of debt, because it is usually incurred accidentally or faultlessly. People do not plan to fall ill or ...

. Founded in 2014 by former debt collection executives Jerry Ashton and Craig Antico, the charity

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portfolios of income-qualifying medical debt from debt collectors and healthcare providers, and then relieves the debt. The charity converts every dollar contributed into $100 of purchased medical debt relief. The founders were inspired by medical debt elimination efforts by Occupy Wall Street. The charity gained attention in 2016 when the TV show ''

Last Week Tonight with John Oliver ''Last Week Tonight with John Oliver'' (often abridged as ''Last Week Tonight'') is an American late-night talk and news satire television program hosted by comedian John Oliver. The half-hour-long show premiered in April 2014 on HBO. ''Last Wee ...

'' used them to turn $60,000 into $15 million of debt forgiveness. As of June 2022, the charity has forgiven debts for over 2,800,000 individuals and families, totaling over $5 billion. ''

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'' profiled RIP Medical Debt in a long-form journalism piece by correspondent Martha Teichner in the April 16, 2023, episode of the Sunday morning television newsmagazine, in which it was stated that the non-profit charity had already extinguished more than $9.5 billion in medical debt. In January 2020, professional basketball player Trae Young of the Atlanta Hawks donated $10,000 to the non-profit to abolish a total of $1,000,000 in medical debt. In December 2020, philanthropist MacKenzie Scott, who was previously married to Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos, donated $50 million.

References

External links

* {{Official website, https://ripmedicaldebt.org/
RIP Medical Debt
at GuideStar
RIP Medical Debt
at

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Organizations established in 2014 Long Island City Non-profit organizations based in New York (state) Debt buyers Healthcare in the United States