An 85-year-old woman recently joined forces with second graders peddling lemonade to wipe out more than $2.6 million in medical debt burdening 1,102 Central New Yorkers, most in the Syracuse area.
The lucky recipients of the four-month effort should get the good news via letter this week, just before Christmas.
This was the third campaign to erase medical debt from Judy Jones, of Ithaca. She said she targeted Syracuse and its suburbs this time following a report by a national think tank that shows 25% of adult city residents were burdened by unpaid medical bills.
The grandchild of a friend rallied three classes of Ithaca second-graders to the cause. The schoolchildren raised more than $400 selling lemonade during the springtime Ithaca Festival, donating half of the proceeds to erase medical debt, Jones said. (The other half went to help Ithaca’s homeless population.)
Others were so impressed by what the kids did that they donated thousands more, Jones said.
She built on the momentum to eventually collect more than $14,000, which she sent to the national non-profit RIP Medical Debt. The organization, founded by two former debt collectors, buys medical debt from collections agencies and forgives it for a tiny fraction of the cost, with the help of private donations like Jones’ campaign.
In this case, the non-profit paid 53 cents for every $100 owed, thus satisfying those debts.
That’s how $14,123.70 in donations erased $2,659,751.20 in debt for 1,102 people.
Of those whose debt was erased, 953 live in Onondaga County and 149 in Cortland County, the non-profit’s records show.
Judy Jones, of Ithaca, received this breakdown from RIP Medical Debt of those who received forgiveness through her 2023 campaign.Provided by Judy Jones
RELATED: How NY state, Upstate Medical haul thousands of sick and poor into court for little gain
Having debt forgiven by RIP Medical Debt is similar to winning the lottery. That’s because the non-profit does not pick and choose who “wins” forgiveness. Instead, they pay as much debt as they can in a targeted area using a formula: recipients must have an income 400% or less of the poverty line, or have bills that total 5% or more of their gross income. No one can request to have any specific person’s debt forgiven.
In 2022, the non-profit collected $42 million in donations and erased nearly $1.8 billion in debt nationwide, according to the group’s annual report.
For Jones, it’s a way to help hundreds of strangers who are victim to a broken medical payment system. Her church, the First Unitarian Universalist Society of Ithaca, backed her campaign.
She’s done two prior campaigns. The last one, in 2018, brought in $10,000 to erase $1.5 million in medical debt from residents scattered across New York state, she said.
This time, Jones said that the white envelopes notifying people in the Syracuse area of their forgiven debt should arrive before Christmas. But she’s concerned that the recipients may not realize what happened.
“We are very much afraid that the low-income folks that get the white envelopes might think they are fundraisers” and throw them away, she said.
Those lucky enough to have their medical debt forgiven will be notified by letter in a white envelope.Provided by RIP Medical Debt
Read more stories from syracuse.com about medical debt
- Hochul’s budget would stop Upstate hospital from suing thousands of poor patients each year
- Hochul proposes law to stop hospitals like Upstate from suing poor patients over unpaid bills
- NY’s public hospitals should stop suing low-income patients over medical debts (Editorial Board Opinion)
- How NY state, Upstate Medical haul thousands of sick and poor into court for little gain
- Medical debt can no longer hurt your credit score in New York
Staff writer Douglass Dowty can be reached at ddowty@syracuse.com or (315) 470-6070.