Max is running a half to help cancel medical debt

Hi everyone, thanks for visiting my fundraising page.

I’m running the Brooklyn half marathon in a few weeks (April 24). It's my first ever half marathon, and I’m doing it to raise money to cancel US medical debt.

 

Some stats:

 

– 50% of Americans are saddled with medical debt due to a completely broken and amoral healthcare system

 

– The total debt Americans own ranges between $81bn and $140bn, depending on what study you read (the $140bn figure was from a recent Stanford study).

 

– Medical debt is crippling the finances of working-class and middle-class Americans, and one of the leading causes of bankruptcy.

 

– Census data shows that 28% of black households have medical debt, compared with 17% of white households (source).

 

RIP Medical Debt takes advantage of the fact that in America anyone can set up a debt buying company and purchase medical debt to then collect or, in this case, forgive. They work to find those most in need of assistance, before negotiating a reduced price for the debt.

 

In 2016 John Oliver worked with RIP Medical Debt to buy and forgive a $60,000 a medical debt portfolio worth $14.9 million in unpaid bills, belonging to 9,000 Americans. More recently, Stacey Abrams raised enough money to cancel the medical debt of 68,000 Georgians.

 

No-one should have to deal with medical debt as all healthcare should be free at the point of service, and available to everyone. But until that happens, I'm really looking forward to running my first half marathon and raising money for this cause.

Here is an example of the letters RIP Medical Debt send out to people they've helped:


You can watch the full John Oliver segment on debt buying and relief here: