If you have unpaid medical bills in Los Angeles County, that could get abolished soon.
The county’s new medical debt relief program launches today, focusing on people with low incomes.
It comes after a report found Angelenos have over $2.9 billion in unpaid medical bills as of 2022, which is the leading cause of bankruptcy in the U.S.
“No one should have to go into poverty to get the health care they need, and yet that’s exactly what’s happening,” county Supervisor Janice Hahn said at a news conference on Monday. “Medical debt is crushing families across our communities.”
Roughly 785,000 people, or about 1 in 10 adults in the county, have medical debt.
How your bills could get paid
The program works differently than other debt relief programs because people aren’t able to apply.
Instead, the public health department has partnered with the national nonprofit Undue Medical Debt to select and pay off the debts through participating hospitals, physicians’ groups and other entities that own medical debt and share their data. Jonathan Wiggs, a board member with Undue, said locating medical debt is a tougher task than you might think.
“It’s hard to find this,” Wiggs said. “There’s no open resource out there other than the debt providers, the debt collectors in order to be able to acquire and execute this debt on behalf of our patients.”
The initial hospitals up for patient debt cancellation include MLK Community Hospital and Adventist Health White Memorial Hospital. There are hospitals in L.A. County that have not joined the program yet, and some may want to participate anonymously.
if your debt is chosen, you’ll get a…
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