Heart at Work: ATL Campaign

2020 has been an incredibly difficult year for so many of us. We are living through a global pandemic, staggeringly high unemployment, and attempting to adapt to new normals that feel like inconveniences at best to almost or truly impossible at worst. This does not even take into account the loss of so many, so soon and the millions who may now be considered to have a pre-existing health condition due to contracting COVID-19.

While we are all living through so much, there are people who are dealing with these stressors while bearing the burden of crushing medical debt ranging from hundreds to thousands to tens of thousands, and even hundreds of thousands of dollars.

To close out this year, I am partnering with RIP Medical Debt to raise $15,000 in order to clear the medical debts of residents throughout the Metro Atlanta counties of Clayton, DeKalb, Douglas, Fulton, Newton, and Rockdale. The need in these counties exceeds $180,000,000 in medical debt. For every dollar raised, RIP Medical Debt can leverage a single dollar to eliminate on average $100 of medical debt. Every dollar truly counts. I appreciate your consideration and hope you can either donate to the campaign, amplify the campaign, or both.

-S.

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RIP Medical Debt’s Solution: RIP Medical Debt uses donations to purchase bundled medical debt portfolios that have gone through collection agencies for months or years. Using third-party credit data providers, it targets debt incurred by people facing financial hardship, and then forgives it. On average, $1 is leveraged to abolish $100 in medical debt.

Please see the full RIP FAQ below and visit www.ripmedicaldebt.org for more information. 

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Want to make a donation by cash or check?

Please mail to to any cash or check (payable to "RIP Medical Debt") to the address below and make sure to notate on the memo line or letter that your gift is designated to "Heart at Work: ATL Campaign."

RIP Medical Debt  / 80 Theodore Fremd Ave. Rye, NY 10580 

Who is RIP Medical Debt? RIP Medical Debt (RIP) is a national 501c3 nonprofit organization with a mission to empower donors to forgive the billions of dollars in oppressive medical debt at pennies on the dollar. RIP locates, buys, and abolishes destructive medical debt for individuals, veterans, and families. Since inception in 2014, RIP has relieved more than $450 million in medical debt for individuals across the U.S., impacting over 250,000 individuals.

How Does RIP Medical Debt Work? RIP, working with third-party credit data providers, searches through large debt portfolios to locate accounts meeting their criteria for relief. RIP then negotiates to buy millions of dollars of this debt at a steep discount, usually a penny or less on the dollar.

Facts about Medical Debt

• More than $100 billion in unpaid medical debt every year has an adverse impact on debtor patients,  physicians, and hospitals.
• 6 in 10 of both insured and uninsured people say they have difficulty in paying other bills as a result of medical debt. Over a third were unable to pay for food, heat, or housing because of medical bills.
• Nearly two-thirds of U.S. adults under age 65, or 116 million people, had medical bill problems or debt, went without needed care because of cost, were uninsured for a time, or were underinsured—insured but had high out-of-pocket medical expenses or deductibles relative to income.
• Medical debt contributes to more than 60% of the bankruptcies in the US. Until satisfied, debt
  lingers on a person’s credit report to negatively impact their ability to buy a home, get a loan or evengain employment.

Whose unpayable medical bills does RIP forgive?

• Individuals who make less than 2 times the federal poverty level
• Individuals with financial hardship - a debt that that is 5% or more of their annual income
• Individuals who are insolvent (debts greater to their assets)

Why Donate to RIP Medical Debt?

• Your dollar goes a long way! On average, $1 abolishes $100 of debt.
• 100 percent of your donation goes towards abolishing medical debt in Alaska.
• RIP Medical Debt is a 501c3 nonprofit organization, and our EIN number is 47-1442997. Donations are tax-deductible as allowed by law.
• We have specific programs for veterans and active service members of the US military.
• There are no tax consequences for those whose medical debts are forgiven. The forgiveness is a gift from a detached and disinterested third party (RIP) is an act of generosity, so forgiveness of the debt does not count as being income to the gift recipient.

RIP Medical Debt's Federal Tax ID: 47-1442997