Editorial: We shouldn't need charity to end medical debt

Some churches in the Chicago area have joined forces in a creative solution to an intractable problem. They've teamed up with RIP Medical Debt to erase unpaid medical debt, which can ruin a person's credit report, prevent being hired for some jobs, and cause mortgages and rental applications to be denied.

The nonprofit buys bad debt bundled by collectors for as little as a fraction of a penny on the dollar, then forgives the debt and gets it removed from credit reports. Nearly 6,000 people in the Chicago area are getting letters declaring their debt was wiped out, NPR reports. Nationally, hundreds of thousands of people have benefitted since John Oliver in 2016 showcased the charity on a "Last Week Tonight" segment and then, with a musical fanfare and the push of a big red button, forgave nearly $15 million worth of medical debt for around 9,000 people. He paid $60,000.

Many people have jumped on board to expand the effort. Recipients talk of the immense relief of no longer being accountable for a debt they cannot pay.

Yet, it's a backdoor solution to a many-pronged problem that must be addressed. Two-thirds of people who file for bankruptcy cite medical issues as the reason and one-third of GoFundMe donations go for medical costs. People without insurance are charged more than insurers for the same treatment. Even those with insurance aren't always protected if they can't pay for premiums or cover high deductibles and copays. And what if a person, while fighting a frightening health emergency, ends up in an ambulance or at a hospital or on a medication for which he or she doesn't have coverage? People like that are in deep debt before they even get back on their feet.

Most of us could see ourselves in the same predicament as the charity's beneficiaries.

If you owe the money, your debt keeps rising. If you're owed the money, you can lump those bad debts together and sell them at a very steep discount, where they can be bought by a charity aimed at erasing people's debt or by a different kind of outfit using increasingly aggressive tactics to try to get people's payments.

The smart do-gooders at RIP Medical Debt have made life-changing investments for many people, and we're grateful for that. But it shouldn't keep the focus in Washington off the need to come up with fixes that will allow Americans to afford the medical care they need. The real goal should be to make the work of such charities obsolete.