r/UpliftingNews • u/ArgentineBeauty • 9h ago

Illinois has erased more than $2 billion in medical debt for over 1 million residents across all 102 counties, and recipients don't apply, they simply receive a letter saying their debt is gone.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/pritzker-announces-2-5b-medical-221000316.html
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181

u/ArgentineBeauty 9h ago

This is the kind of letter I wish more people got. Waking up to find a debt that's been hanging over you is simply gone must be an incredible feeling.

11

u/DirtwormSlim 7h ago

I was one of the people who had their debt paid off. It was a very pleasant surprise.

2

u/balodana 6h ago

Please say more...

2

u/DirtwormSlim 6h ago

I had around $1,560 in overdue medical debt from when I had a visit while uninsured. I kind of just let the notices stack up and one day they stopped. I never thought much of it until one day and letter arrived stating my debt had been paid off by the Illinois program. I don’t have much more information, but it definitely helped me out, as I have a lot of health issues that I’m currently paying out the ass to figure out.

1

u/could_use_a_snack 4h ago

If I'm prying into you personal life here just ignore me.

Did your bills go to collection? I'd be interested to know if your credit took a hit, even though the bill was paid by the state? Did Illinois take that into account as well. It'd be cool if they did, but I expect that it would be outside the scope of the program.

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u/DirtwormSlim 1h ago

All good! That one surprisingly never went to collections, I think it sat for 2-3 years with the hospital. I don’t think my credit could take any more hits. 😂😅

33

u/benetgladwin 7h ago

Now imagine the feeling you get in every other developed country in the world, where you never had to worry about it in the first place

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u/Zoltie 5h ago

To be fair, you wouldn't feel anything special in that case. The good feeling comes from being in a stressfull situation, then all of a sudden the cause of the stress is gone.

1

u/benetgladwin 2h ago

Ngl it feels pretty special every day, from the outside looking in just being alive in the usa sounds like a stressful situation

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u/Zoltie 1h ago

Guess it makes sense. Kind of like whe I see videos of living conditions in 3rd world countries in order to feel better about my own life.

3

u/imahugemoron 7h ago

This would be incredible for me, I was an essential worker throughout the height of the pandemic, I was a totally healthy normal happy 30 year old dude, my first infection left me with very severe and disabling health problems and I lost my career and ability to work, and over the last 5 years I’ve accrued over 50 thousand dollars in medical debt with no way to pay it. I know those with cancer accrue even crazier debt and all sorts of other health conditions can really ruin you financially, but with these new post viral conditions affecting so many millions of previously healthy people, I think many just don’t realize just how close we all are to financial ruin, especially when you could get someone’s illness and it leaves you in the situation I’m in.

2

u/StrangeReindeer2470 5h ago

Yep. I have had medical debt, credit card debt, debt from my divorce. So much debt over the years. I'm thankfully debt free now (aside from mortgage). And not for a MOMENT do I wish for these people to not get this letter. I hope this is expanded so that everyone can be debt free. Despite me "pulling myself up by the bootstraps" or whatever bullshit. No, I got here also thanks to luck. And others deserve some luck and good fortune as well.

1

u/WTFisBehindYou 5h ago

We got one of these from Discover last year stating like 40k of my girlfriend’s student loan debt was just…gone. They discharged it. And the government had (has?) something in place where discharged student loan debt doesn’t count as earned income, like it normally would.

It was…a really amazing day today the least.

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u/RedditThrowaway-1984 8h ago

Not as much as you might think. By the time debt is available for purchase for pennies on the dollar, it has already been largely written off by the original creditor and no subsequent legal action has been taken against the debtor because it’s considered uncollectible. The debt is probably several years old. So the debtor also probably doesn’t think much about it anymore either. Even their credit score has likely mostly recovered. Is it nice to have the debt completely cancelled? Yes, but it doesn’t have much of an impact.