Please Help Us Make a Difference – It Starts with $1 – Your Donation Can Bring Relief.
St. Martin’s Episcopal Church in Mason, TX is partnering with its sister congregations of the Northern Convocation of the Episcopal Diocese of West Texas, other supporters, and the non-profit Undue Medical Debt to alleviate the financial and emotional burdens of unpaid medical bills. Without our help, some of our neighbors will never escape these debts. We are asking you to consider making a contribution to “The Skye’s the Limit” campaign, which has a goal of raising $14,000 to eliminate approximately $3 million of unpaid medical debt in our area!
(Please see bottom of this campaign summary for additional information about the work of Undue Medical Debt, the nature of the debt we seek to eliminate and the medical debt that has been identified in our area.)
According to Undue Medical Debt, “even after medical insurance payouts, there can be unaffordable monthly medical bill payments” that families in the Hill Country must make, threatening their financial stability. They continue, “Texans who normally would never dream of ignoring a bill are forced to choose between providing for their family and carving deep into their utility and food budget to pay off a debt incurred through no fault of their own.” Many families face the difficult choice between buying needed medications or buying food for their children.
Additionally, an article by Peterson-KFF in Health System Tracker suggests that people with unaffordable medical bills are more likely to delay or skip needed care to avoid incurring more medical debt, cut back on other basic household expenses, take money out of retirement or college savings, or increase credit card debt. People with medical debt are also more likely to experience other forms of financial distress.
St. Martin’s Episcopal Church in Mason, TX (www.stmartinsmason.org), is part of the Northern Convocation in the Episcopal Diocese of West Texas (www.dwtx.org). We are inviting you to support our campaign goal of $14,000, which aims to alleviate approximately $3 million of existing medical debt in the twelve counties of our Diocese’s Northern Convocation. Any funds raised beyond our $14,000 goal will go towards eliminating additional identified debt.
Join St. Martin’s Episcopal Church in alleviating the burden of medical debt in our community through “The Skye’s the Limit” campaign. Together, we can make a significant impact on the lives of our neighbors and families. It starts with $1—your donation can bring relief!
Notes:
About Undue Medical Debt – Undue Medical Debt invites us to help raise “donations to purchase bundled medical debt portfolios from hospitals and on the secondary debt market. Undue targets debt incurred by people facing financial hardship and then abolishes it. Every donation through this page will be spent directly on abolishing debt” in these twelve counties in Central Texas. With your donation, we can erase approximately $3 million dollars of medical debt.
They continue, “When debt-relief recipients open the yellow envelope from Undue, they are told that their debt has been bought by a third party and erased with no strings attached. They owe nothing on the debt and face no tax penalty.
“Money will stay in the community instead of being taken by out-of-state debt collectors. On average, $16 can abolish the medical debt of an entire family, allowing them to invest in a home, schooling, or retirement”.
Identified Medical Debt – The medical debt our campaign is addressing is only in bundled debt from many people. It does not cover individual people who are facing new medical debts; it cannot be directed at a particular individual’s debt; and there is no individual application process. Instead, by buying up bundles of old medical debt, it stops the debt collectors from going after people whose debt is in this bundle of identified debt and who can least afford to pay this debt.
Identified Medical Debt in Our Area – Following are the twelve counties in the Northern Convocation of the Diocese with identified medical debt, totaling approximately $3 million dollars: Mason, Bandera, Blanco, Gillespie, Kendall, Kerr, Kimble, McCulloch, Menard, Llano, San Saba, and Sutton counties.
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Please Help Us Make a Difference – It Starts with $1 – Your Donation Can Bring Relief.
To learn more, visit the Episcopal News Service to read our press release : https://episcopalnewsservice.org/pressreleases/st-martins-in-mason-tx-works-to-eliminate-existing-unpaid-medical-debt/
