Parishes drive debt forgiveness in the Jubilee Year through medical bill erasure

(OSV News) -- When God instructed Moses how to declare a Jubilee Year -- "And you shall hallow the fiftieth year and you shall proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you" (Lv 25:10) -- the commanded celebration was to include forgiveness of debt.

It is an ancient social justice principle still encouraged during the current Jubilee Year, inaugurated by Pope Francis on Christmas Eve 2024. In his New Year's address, the pontiff made the emphasis clear: "The first to forgive debts is God, as we always ask him when we pray the Lord's Prayer. … And the Jubilee asks us to translate this forgiveness on a social level, so that no person, no family, no population is crushed by debts."

In the United States, groups of Catholic faithful are specifically committed to erasing American medical debt -- whatever the season -- because they are grimly acquainted with the damage it can do.

"Medical debt can be crushing for people," said Barry Shay, director of discipleship and mission at St. Joseph the Worker Catholic Community in Maple Grove, Minnesota. "And it can happen to anybody -- because everybody knows how expensive it can be."

Being insured, Shay noted, is no guarantee of avoiding debt.

"If you're not insured, or under-insured or even catastrophically insured -- even if you have insurance, it can still strap you up. People wind up with debts that they cannot possibly repay," he said.

"So to then have somebody that just writes it off and says, 'You don't owe anything' and expects nothing in return -- how theological is that?" he asked. "It's exactly what happens to us in our own lives, through the mercy of Jesus."

The channel for that mercy is a unique nonprofit called Undue Medical Debt -- a name that refers both to its ability to pay off ("undo") medical debt, and that such debt is an excessive ("undue") burden for many Americans.

Founded by former debt collectors, Undue Medical Debt uses donations to buy large medical debts at a discount. Every $10 donated relieves $1,000 on average of medical debt for families in financial need. Individuals are then notified their qualifying debt has been forgiven.

Since its 2014 founding, Undue Medical Debt has retired more than $14.8 billion worth of debt for over 9.85 million Americans.

Undue Medical Debt does not target individual's debts, but rather whomever's debt is held within purchased portfolios. Because of HIPAA laws, Undue Medical Debt does not disclose to donors the names of people whose debt has been relieved.

Fundraising campaigns can be started by anyone -- and several Catholic parishes and organizations have opted to do so, or to participate in collective campaigns. St. Joseph the Worker partners with 20 other Minnesota faith congregations in donating to Undue Medical Debt.

During his initial research, Shay recalls thinking, "It can't really work that easily." But as he soon found, "It turns out that yes, it can."

The relief of those whose debt is forgiven, Shay said, is spiritually rewarding to witness.

"This is a miracle to them, and they can't believe this has happened," he said, noting that it lifts "the stress that it had brought on their life."

Shay said some recipients offer to pay the organization back. "And it's like, no, it's done -- there's nothing to pay back," he said.

A reported 66.5% of people who file for bankruptcy cite medical bills as the primary reason, resulting in around 530,000 "medical bankruptcies" per year.

While numbers vary, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau indicated in October 2024 that about 100 million Americans owe over $220 billion in medical debt.

Peterson-KFF Health System Tracker -- a website resource for U.S. health care system information -- noted in 2024 that approximately 14 million (6%) American adults owe over $1,000 in medical debt; about 3 million (1%) owe more than $10,000.

"While medical debt occurs across demographic groups, people with disabilities or in worse health, lower-income people, and uninsured people are more likely to have medical debt," the Peterson-KFF analysis states.

Allison Benjamin, outgoing president of the chapter of Students for a National Health Program, or SNaHP, at Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska, said the school's Jesuit values of social justice, solidarity, compassion and service to others influenced the launch of their campaign with Undue Medical Debt.

"Our mission is kind of an expanded fight for health care accessibility and affordability -- medical debt is a huge impediment for people, and health care is increasingly unaffordable," said Benjamin, a sociology major and pre-medicine student who graduates in May. "And so abolishing and forgiving medical debt is very much in line with our mission."

While not Catholic herself, Benjamin said that as a Christian, she appreciates Catholic social teaching's emphasis on "wanting to care for the whole person, and that everybody should have the God-given dignity and right to receive health care."

Benjamin, however, also wanted to make a legislative impact.

For her senior thesis, she researched medical debt lawsuits in a local county, reading over 270 cases. In conjunction with the advocacy group Nebraska Appleseed and a state senator, a bill was eventually drafted to limit the amount of wages that can be garnished for medical debt. The rate is currently 25%.

Benjamin and her fellow SNaHP colleagues testified at the State Capitol. While the bill may not move forward in the current legislative session, an interim legislative study -- a formal investigation by the Legislature or its committees to make recommendations on a specific issue -- could take place.

"When people are struggling with medical debt -- and especially if they're being sued for medical debt or being garnished -- they're having to choose between paying their bills, or paying their medical bills, or putting food on the table, or paying for heating, or saving for their children's education," Benjamin said. "And that is not giving people dignity. That's just trapping them in a cycle of debt and really giving them no choices."

Eric LeCompte -- executive director of the Jubilee USA Network, a coalition of religious, development and advocacy groups that has secured more than $130 billion in debt relief for the world's poorest economies -- agreed.

"Knowing so many families who have struggled with being able to afford medical care, the No. 1 piece of advice that hospitals and pharmaceuticals and others are giving to people is, go start a GoFundMe in order to pay for your medical bills. I think that's absolutely tragic -- and in many ways, is actually sinful," he said.

In February 2024, The Atlantic magazine reported that "GoFundMe has become a go-to for patients trying to escape medical billing nightmares. … In 2020, the number of U.S. campaigns related to medical causes -- about 200,000 -- was 25 times higher than the number of such campaigns on the site in 2011."

At San Francisco Solano Catholic Church in Rancho Santa Margarita, California, Peter Truong found himself intrigued by Undue Medical Debt after listening to a New Yorker magazine podcast.

"My background is in medicine, so I'm familiar with medical debt and how impactful -- in a negative way -- it can be on a family," said Truong. "And I thought, maybe I could help here. Because at the time, the program talked about a church in North Carolina that was doing this. And I thought, 'Well, you know, why not us?'"

His ministry colleague Brach Rick investigated a potential moral concern.

"One of the first challenges that we had is, what if we buy medical debt that goes against the beliefs of the Catholic Church?" Rick said.

Medical privacy regulations do not allow the disclosure of such data, but a bishop they eventually spoke with emphasized intent. If they unintentionally bought debt for a medical procedure against Catholic teaching, the debt purchase was not done so purposefully -- and therefore, not a reason not to participate.

Rick also stressed the ease of starting an Undue Medical Debt campaign, and he encouraged other Catholics parishes to follow his parish's example.

"They do all the work -- they design the webpage; they set it up," he said. "All you have to do is just keep forwarding that URL to your friends and families, to try to motivate them to donate."