A Texas church donates $ 2,6 million of medical debt to the poor with donations

The Texas Church used donations to pay out 2,6 million dollar medical debt for families from nearby counties.

Фото: Depositphotos

The North Texas church used donations to pay out 2,6 million dollars of medical debts for 2400 families from Dallas and Rockwall counties. Yahoo.

On Sept. 24, Pastor Josh Howerton of Lake Pointe Church told ABC News that the project is part of the church's "Pay It Forward" campaign, which aims to encourage community members to participate in charitable activities to celebrate the church's 40th anniversary.

“We wanted to celebrate our 40th anniversary by passing on the generosity given to us to the people in our communities,” Howerton said.

According to Howerton, in order to mark the anniversary, the church also contributed to local organizations that deal with issues such as human trafficking, homelessness and domestic violence. Church leaders decided to focus on this issue by looking at statistics that showed that over 60% of bankruptcies in America are due to medical debt. According to a study published in the February 2019 of the year in the American Journal of Public Health, health problems led to 66,5% of all bankruptcies in the country.

On the subject: Americans are massively bankrupt due to medical debts

According to Howerton, letters with information about paying off medical debt to families began to be sent in mid-September.

Letters were sent to veterans of the U.S. armed forces, people whose income is two or more times lower than the federal poverty level, residents whose 5% or more of their annual income goes to pay medical bills, and those whose medical debt is greater than assets.

Howerton said the church has partnered with the nonprofit RIP Medical Debt, which uses donations to buy medical debt at a special penny-on-the-dollar rate and then forgives the debt. RIP Medical Debt helped Lake Pointe Church identify recipients.

“One of the great things the organization does is it works with debt holders and negotiates payments,” Howerton said. “So we were able to pay off $2,6 million in medical debt for about $27.”

Craig Antico, co-founder and COO of RIP Medical Debt, said cooperation with the church began in May 2019, when the church first contacted the organization about the project. Since the 2014 of the year, more than 200 churches have sought help, and 68 have raised their own donations to help eliminate medical debts.

“We really felt that medical debt was unduly hurting the most vulnerable people,” Antico said. “The problem is getting worse and worse, and we just recognize that we have a way to stop these difficulties.”

On the subject: What debts you will never forgive in the United States, even if you declare yourself bankrupt

According to Howerton, there are about 12 000 members in his church, and he hopes this project will inspire participants to help people in their communities.

“We want our people to do one act of kindness a day for the next 40 days,” Howerton said. — Simple calculations show that in 40 days 12 people can help half a million people. That's what we have for this campaign."

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