On Tuesday, April 8th, Health Care For All (HCFA) joined over 80 diverse healthcare stakeholders at the Atrius Health Equity Foundation’s event “Medical Debt & Health Equity in MA: What You Need to Know”. Featuring Keynote Speaker, Allison Sesso, the CEO of Undue Medical Debt, the event highlighted medical debt statistics in Massachusetts and the impact it has on residents.
Nearly 13% of residents in the Commonwealth have family medical debt. During the program, Allison announced that Undue Medical Debt, a national nonprofit that abolishes medical debt for low-income Americans, had purchased an estimated $30 million in medical debt in Eastern Massachusetts. As a result, about 17,000 MA residents will soon receive letters stating that their debt has been forgiven. Undue’s work is incredibly important for relieving the burden of medical debt on families today, but more work needs to be done to enact lasting policy change to prevent people in MA from getting medical debt in the first place.
Further supporting the need for medical debt relief, Lauren Peters, the Executive Director of the Center for Health Information and Analysis (CHIA), shared medical debt data collected in the most recent Massachusetts Health Insurance Survey (MHIS). CHIA’s findings highlight that medical debt is a health equity issue as 20% of Black residents reported taking on some level of medical debt compared with 12% of White residents. Lauren also announced that CHIA is asking new medical debt related questions in the current MHIS to better understand medical debt causes and impacts across Massachusetts.
As part of Tuesday’s event, HCFA Senior Director of Policy and Government Relations Ashley Blackburn moderated a panel discussion between Chi Chi Wu from National Consumer Law Center (NCLC), Edily Vasquez from the Neighborhood Developers, and Jason Reis from Health Law Advocates (HLA). The panel shared stories from clients they serve who have medical debt, relaying common causes they see in their work and the impact that it has on individuals and families. They also suggested solutions to ease the burden of medical debt, including state bans on credit reporting for medical debt; improvement of hospital financial assistance policies; restored Health Safety Net eligibility; and community financial support services and training to help residents navigate the complex health care system.
Amy Rosenthal, HCFA’s Executive Director, issued closing remarks underscoring the Commonwealth’s commitment to addressing health equity in Massachusetts. She reminded attendees that if stakeholders come together to find solutions, eliminating medical debt in Massachusetts is within our reach. 
Thank you to the Atrius Health Equity Foundation for hosting such a wonderful event and for working with us to end medical debt in eastern Massachusetts!
Marcella Lampon is a policy & project coordinator at HCFA.
