Governments target medical debt with COVID relief funds

By MARK PRATT
Associated Press

BOST0N (AP) — An increasing number of municipal, county and state governments are using federal pandemic relief funds to pay residents’ burdensome medical debt. Experts say medical debt often forces people to make difficult decisions about which bills to pay and even whether to seek critical medical care. Cook County, Illinois, Pittsburgh, New Orleans, Toldeo, Ohio and the Boston suburb Somerville, Massachusetts are among the communities looking into using American Rescue Plan Act funds to address the problem. They are teaming up with teaming up with RIP Medical Debt, a nonprofit that since 2014 has used donations to buy huge bundles of debt at pennies on the dollar and pay it off.