Undue Medical Debt: A Radical Remedy for a Broken System

This week on The Business of Giving, the focus is on one of the most distressing — and solvable — crises in America today: medical debt.

Each year, millions of families are forced to choose between paying their bills and getting the care they need. But what if there were a way to erase that debt — not just for a few, but for thousands at a time?

That’s exactly what Undue Medical Debt does. Led by CEO Allison Sesso, the organization buys medical debt the way a for-profit company would — but instead of collecting it, they forgive it. The return on investment? For every $1 donated, $100 of medical debt is wiped away.

Allison also shares how a nurse working during the pandemic found herself in medical debt at the very hospital where she worked — a stark example of how broken the system is, and why it must change.
Here is my conversation with Allison Sesso, CEO of Undue Medical Debt.