Medical Debt Relief Initiative

Medical Debt Relief Initiative

 

Under the leadership of Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, we’ve created the Cook County Medical Debt Relief Initiative (MDRI) with funding from the American Rescue Plan.

Across the country, people are swimming, and some are drowning, in medical debt. They have bills they can’t pay for many reasons. It may be they welcomed a new baby, received diagnostic tests after worrying news from their doctor, were rushed to an emergency room after an accident, or a myriad of other reasons. Today, medical debt is the number one reason for bankruptcy in the United States.

So, we decided to cancel as much of that debt as we can.

As the first local government to initiate an endeavor at this scale, Cook County is partnering with Undue Medical Debt - a national nonprofit that has erased debt for more than 3.6 million individuals and families so far. With just $9 million of our federal funds, they have the potential to negotiate the purchase of up to $1 billion in medical debt for Cook County residents and cancel it.

Those who are recipients of this program will no longer owe the specific medical debt(s) erased through MDRI and will not have to pay taxes on this one-time donation toward the purchase of their medical debt.

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