In March 2019, when Sara Cook first got a letter telling her that someone had paid off a part of her medical debt, she thought it was fake. "It seems like one of those e-mails you get saying you have a long-lost uncle and you've just inherited two million dollars." Cook says. Cook called the number listed on the letter and what she learned was that this was not a scam.
A remarkable nonprofit organization called RIP Medical Debt had paid $ 5,000 towards her bills. RIP buys medical debts directly from hospitals at a steep discount, usually paying only a few pennies to retire each dollar of debt. Since 2014, it is estimated that they've spent only about $20 million to pay off nearly
$1 billion in personal debts. Antic and Ashton, the founders, get their money from individuals and charities that support RIP's mission. The $5,000 to pay off Cook's bill was donated by a church in Michigan, which in 2019 raised $53,000, paying off $5 million in debt owed by thousands of people.
Don't bother contacting RIP for help, however. Now, RIP researches potential recipients (接受者) based on three criteria. First, they look for people who make no more than 2.5 times the amount established as the federal poverty level. Then they seek for those whose debt is equal to 5 percent or more of their total income. Third, they look to see whether a person is bankrupt.
For those who do qualify, RIP's help is life-altering. "After their letter, I realized that my life really wasn't that awful," says Cook, who shares her story with anyone who has the willingness to listen. "I may be deprived of the chance to work as a nurse again, but I can sit at the school library and help kid read or serve up food in the soup kitchen. When people do something out of the kindness of their hearts, sometimes they may wonder whether it really makes a difference. I want people to know that this indeed has a positive impact."
