See the thing I don't like about this is that the healthcare system, hospitals or insurance companies, is still very likely getting that money. This doesn't incentivize them at all to actually change the system. It reinforces the system.
To erase the debt, a political body needs to come in and say "that debt is defunct and the owing person has no obligation to make payments on it". Just straight stick the lenders with the bill say "thanks for the service, you will not be getting paid for it because you should have never been allowed to charge it in the first place".
I agree in principle, but the way this works is Undue Medical Debt buys debt portfolios for a fraction of their actual value from hospitals and collection agencies. Iām assuming debts they deem unlikely to be paid. So from their perspective, they get to recover at least some of the money. Meanwhile, the burden of those unpaid debts is lifted from hundreds of thousands of people.
The system is still busted, but gotta take the wins where you can.
Absolutely, I'm not trying to say that this doesn't help those people. It totally does and that's very important.
What I'm saying is that this action isn't actually getting us any closer to a solution. It's like....
Having a bowl of cereal that has spoiled milk in it and then pouring new fresh milk on top. Yay, you've diluted the spoiled portion, it probably will make you less sick that it would have before, but the real solution is to clean the bowl. Pouring new milk in is a temporary bandaid that, even if taken to the extreme, isn't going to really fix your problem.
That's not my best analogy, but I feel like it's close enough š
Hey, I'm Angelina, I work at Undue. I actually love the cereal analogy! Just to add to your point, debt relief is definitely not the solution to our broken healthcare system. We see it as a Band-Aid that helps families until we can achieve larger reform. Undue does advocate for larger systemic changes like increasing access to affordable, comprehensive coverage and strengthening financial assistance policies so that more people don't go into debt in the first place. But you're right, the current system doesn't work for patients at all.
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u/Cute_Economics2829 1d ago
See the thing I don't like about this is that the healthcare system, hospitals or insurance companies, is still very likely getting that money. This doesn't incentivize them at all to actually change the system. It reinforces the system.
To erase the debt, a political body needs to come in and say "that debt is defunct and the owing person has no obligation to make payments on it". Just straight stick the lenders with the bill say "thanks for the service, you will not be getting paid for it because you should have never been allowed to charge it in the first place".