Churches aim to pay off medical debts
Two local pastors are urging churches to join a campaign to eliminate $12 million in medical debt for residents in Lake, Porter and LaPorte counties.
Opening a medical bill can be worrisome regardless of whether you’re insured or not.
“Too many people in our region are buried by medical debt,” Greg Lee, pastor of Suncrest Christian Church in St. John, told me. “It’s not just the debt itself. It’s debt that is ruining their credit and their chance to get a reasonable loan for anything else. It snowballs so they can’t buy a stable house or stable transportation to have a stable job.”
Roughly 140 million Americans struggle with medical debt, the primary reason why people consider cashing in their retirement savings or 401(k) account, according to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Plus, medical debt contributes to more than 60% of bankruptcies in the U.S., the American Journal of Medicine reports.
Curtis Whittaker, pastor of Progressive Community Church in Gary, and Lee are rallying other region churches to join a new campaign to eliminate $12 million in extreme medical debt for residents in Lake, Porter, and LaPorte counties. Nearly $8 million of this debt is in Gary alone, according to RIP Medical Debt, a New York-based nonprofit organization. (For more info, visit www.RIPMedicalDebt .org.)
“RIP Medical Debt connects individual donors, philanthropists, and organizations with individuals facing medical debt, allowing donors to purchase debt portfolios at pennies on the dollar,” according to the Capital Research Center’s InfluenceWatch report. “Rather than collecting on the debt, donors write the purchase off as a charitable contribution to RIP, who then uses the funding to forgive medical debts for random individuals across the United States.”
Lee said, “This is what [RIP] does and, after exploring a few options, they were clearly the best in my mind. They do all the negotiations that allow us to pay the debt at such a low rate.”
So far, $62,000 has been raised or pledged for the local campaign’s $120,000 goal. It’s possible the entire $12 million earmarked in medical debt can be eliminated with that $120,000 because RIP Medical Debt promises to convert each $1 donated into relieving $100 of medical debt. (View the campaign online at https://secure.qgiv.com /event/nwindiana/.)
“So far, we have really good traction from our personal networks, but there is no centralized way to get the word out to all churches,” Lee said. “Fundamentally, this is a group of Jesus-followers working together to do work that aligns with the kind of thing He would do. Ultimately, it’s amazing to think of the freedom this will deliver to these local residents strapped with medical debt.”
Participating churches so far include Bethel Church and Faith Church, both with multiple locations in the area, The Gathering in Schererville, New Life Community Church in Hobart, and others in Dyer, Cedar
Lake, Munster, Gary, Highland, and Crown Point spanning all denominational lines. The two pastors hope other churches from Porter and LaPorte counties will join the campaign, as well as the United Way and other community foundations.
“We want this campaign to be something that all people in Northwest Indiana can rally around,” Whittaker said.
Lee added, “It’s important to all the churches working on this that it isn’t about any one church, but what followers of Jesus can do together for a region we love. To see all churches of different sizes, backgrounds and styles come together for this is inspiring. All of these pastors involved care about needs in Northwest Indiana and we love working together.”
Daniel Lembert, spokesman for RIP Medical Debt, told me that his organizations ask campaign coordinators if they’re willing to earmark 20% of their donation for overhead costs. This figure is higher than normal for nonprofit overhead costs, but both pastors are aware of it and believe it’s worth it. They vetted other debt-relief organizations and concluded that RIP Medical Debt is the right one for this project.
Those recipients with overwhelming debts are selected based on certain criteria: income of less than twice the federal poverty level (about $25,000 a year for an individual); debts that are 5% or more of annual income, and have more debt than assets.
“We use data from TransUnion, one of the top three credit reporting agencies, to determine who in a large portfolio of medical debtors is an appropriate fit. Then the debt buyers we partner with allow us to buy only those accounts and we relieve them on behalf of partners,” Lembert said.
Both pastors agreed that churches in the 21st century are too often defined culturally by the loudest scandal or by controversial issues that get twisted into a political discussion.
Meanwhile, most congregations are quietly performing “noble work” in their communities. This new campaign dispels such unfair stereotypes about Christians and faithbased believers, they noted.
The campaign’s webpage states: “Churches partnering together is awesome, and often complicated. This financial approach is simple and collegial.”
For selected recipients, the medical debt on their credit records will be considered fully paid and removed, a potential game-changer for them. Those having debt forgiven will receive a formal letter informing them that the “Churches of Northwest Indiana” have come together to pay their debt. “Any size gift is welcome,” the campaign webpage states.
A fine print disclaimer on the RIP Medical Debt agreement states, “In the event that a campaign is unable to meet RIP Medical Debt’s local campaign contribution goal, all funds will be attributed to our national funds for general or veteran medical debt.”
In other words, the campaign’s funds could go elsewhere in the country unless local churches and donors step up soon. The two pastors have their own self-imposed “aggressive” deadline for this campaign, but not a binding one with RIP Medical Debt, they told me.
“There is not a formal deadline for the campaign, but we hope to reach the goal by the end of March,” Lee said.
“We are hoping to relieve this debt for recipients by Easter, when Jesus forgave our debt,” Whittaker said.
To join the campaign, contact Whittaker at 219880-0850 or curtiswhittaker5@gmail.com,
or Lee at 219-365-9000 or greg.lee@suncrest.org.