June, 17 2024 – Queens, NY –  A White House Fact Sheet in support of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) announcement of a new rule that would, primarily, ban all medical debt credit reporting, highlights Undue Medical Debt’s unique partnership with state, county and city governments where American Rescue Plan funds are often being leveraged to eliminate an estimated $7 billion in medical debt for up to 3 million people. 

Beginning in Chicago’s Cook County in 2022, Undue has been partnering with local governments that commit funds to erase burdensome, unpayable medical debts for qualifying residents in their region. Undue uses those funds to acquire medical debt from local providers like hospitals and erases it for those four times or below the federal poverty level or those with medical debt that is 5% or more of their annual income.  

Read Undue’s full statement on the CFPB’s new rule.

From the White House Fact Sheet:  

“Thanks to the American Rescue Plan (ARP), states, counties, and cities are canceling an estimated $7 billion in medical debt for up to nearly 3 million Americans, including: 

• Arizona is using ARP funds to relieve an estimated up to $2 billion in medical debt for up to 1 million Arizonans. 
• Cook County, Illinois is investing ARP funds to wipe out an estimated up to $1 billion in medical debt for 400,000 residents. Since launching in 2022, the ARP-funded Cook County Medical Debt Relief Initiative has already benefited over 200,000 residents. 
• New Jersey has budgeted millions of dollars that could be drawn from the State’s ARP funds to eliminate up to $1 billion in medical debts, benefiting an estimated 400,000 residents of the Garden State. 
• Connecticut is using ARP funding to cancel up to $650 million in medical debt for an estimated 250,000 residents. 
• Wayne County, Michigan is providing funding enabled in part by ARP to eliminate up to $700 million in medical debt for up to 200,000 residents. 
• Orange County, Florida is leveraging ARP funding to relieve up to $450 million in medical debt for over 150,000 residents. 
• Oakland County, Michigan is using ARP funds to eliminate up to $200 million in medical debt, benefiting up to 80,000 residents. 
• Cleveland, Ohio is investing public funds enabled by ARP to purchase and retire more than $180 million in medical debt. To date, the initiative has already helped over 160,000 residents. 
• Toledo and Lucas County, Ohio are partnering, including leveraging ARP funding to relieve up to $240 million in medical debt for up to 50,000 residents. 
• Cincinnati, Ohio is using public funds to retire medical debt for an estimated almost 60,000 residents. 
• New Orleans, Louisiana is using public funds to cancel approximately $130 million in medical debt for up to 50,000 residents. 
• St. Paul, Minnesota will invest ARP funding to relieve up to $110 million in medical debt, benefiting more than 40,000 residents. 
• Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania is leveraging ARP funding to discharge an estimated $115 million in medical debt for up to 40,000 residents. 
• City and County of Kalamazoo, Michigan are partnering to eliminate up to $89 million in medical debt for over 30,000 residents. 
• St. Louis, Missouri is investing ARP funding to relieve medical debt for roughly 30,000 residents. 
• Akron, Ohio is committing ARP funding to eliminate medical debt for an estimated 20,000 residents.” 

“This is a great moment in the fight against medical debt and a credit to the leadership of our government partners. Localized medical debt relief wouldn’t be possible without these funds made available by the federal government,” says Undue Medical Debt CEO and president Allison Sesso. “Government collaboration significantly advances Undue’s mission to end medical debt and minimizes the detrimental impact it has on the lives of those carrying it.”