Abolishing Medical Debt in the United States with RIP Medical Debt

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s research shows consumers generated $88 billion in medical debt as of June 2021. The CFPB’s research also indicated a vast majority of low-income individuals of all races and ethnicities were more likely to incur medical debt than the national average. This national crisis threatens equitable healthcare in the United States. Thankfully, companies are working to make medical debt a thing of the past.

Enter RIP Medical Debt. They’ve helped wipe away $6.7 billion in medical debt for 4.2 million families. How’d they, do it? That’s the question Brian Urban of the Healthcare Rethink podcast wanted to know.

Eva Stahl, VP of Public Policy at RIP Medical Debt, and Priscilla Keith, VP of Program Management at RIP Medical Debt, joined Urban to discuss their mission to eliminate medical debt from the U.S. equation and how RIP Medical Debt is succeeding in those efforts.

The discussion includes:

• Who RIP Medical Debt is and what they do

• Enlisting the government to help promote RIP’s mission to end medical debt

• The connection between medical debt and the determinants of health

“Medical debt is a drag,” Stahl said. “It’s a drag on the economy, and it’s a drag on your physical and mental health and financial well-being as an individual. There’s a lot of finger-pointing on who’s to blame for it, but the reality is, it is stressful for individuals, and it hampers our growth as a nation.”

Priscilla Keith is a lawyer and a creative, bold leader who sees the big picture and distills complex concepts into simple facts. She leverages strategic, legal, and operational expertise to help people and organizations skate to where the puck goes by taking them from problem identification to goal attainment. In addition to her work with RIP Medical Debt, Keith lectures at New York University.

Eva Stahl is an experienced leader with expertise in program development, grants management, coalition building, policy analysis, strategic coaching, and campaign development. Stahl is an adept public speaker, facilitator, and trainer of community partners and state consumer health advocates. She has extensive practical experience overseeing and directly contributing to campaign efforts to protect essential health programs, including the Affordable Care Act and the Medicaid, Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP).