When "past-due" medical bills are pursued and reported as medical debt, predictable harms and human suffering follow.
Financially, medical debt does long-term damage - lasting for years - to a person's credit history, and thus their purchasing power. It undercuts their financial stability, threatens their ability to pay other bills, and erodes their ability to save. Worse yet, medical debt contributes significantly to over half of all bankruptcies.
Day to day, medical debt in collections exposes people to recurring phone calls - even persistent harassment - from collections agencies. Many people live in dread of the next call.
Emotionally, living with chronic debt of any kind is stressful and draining, and damaging to self-esteem. The daily pressure of debt is stifling. People may feel they have failed, or failed their families, when debt hangs over them.
Ironically, medical debt is the lasting side effect of medical care that aims to heal us. This debt is hazardous to both present and future health. The person with medical debt may seek to minimize new medical spending. They put off doctor visits, "ration" (i.e. reduce or skip) medication doses, or refrain from seeking care at all.
Add to all that chronic worry over unpaid medical bills, which undermines well-being on a daily basis. As Wendell Berry once put it, "How can we get well if we are worried sick about money?"
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The "$10M in 10 Weeks" debt forgiveness campaign is in full swing! We enthusiastically invite and strongly encourage EVERY congregation to participate, and we welcome every contribution. Remember, even a little goes a long way. "Cast your bread upon the water" (Eccl. 11), and it will literally yield debt forgiveness a hundred times over. For every $1 donated, $100 in medical debt will be erased.
If every church donated to this campaign, it would take less than $500 per church to meet our goal of $100,000 in order to relieve $10 Million in medical debt - together as the Illinois Conference!
