Ironically, two men who worked for decades as medical debt collectors have launched RIP Medical Debt, a nonprofit with a goal of raising $14 million to abolish $1 billion of medical debt.
The organizers, Jerry Ashton and Craig Antico, saw the inequities and “couldn’t take it any more.”
“We switched sides and now use the same software systems and data we once used to collect this debt,” they wrote on their website. This time, they will purchase the debt for pennies on the dollar in order to free “good, hard-working responsible people from its stranglehold.”
As newly designated debt buyers, the nonprofit will be able to, for instance, buy a hospital debt worth $5,000 for $50. They have already raised $74,000 in what they believe to be the first effort in the world focused on freeing people from medical debt.
(READ the full story at Metro.US) – Photo courtesy of Bess Adler/Metro