Medical Debt Forgiveness

Question A: Using public funds to purchase and forgive medical debt at a 100-1 ratio will encourage people to access preventative care.

Question B: Using public funds to purchase and forgive medical debt at a 100-1 ratio will reduce health disparities.

Question C: Using public funds to purchase and forgive medical debt at a 100-1 ratio will grow local economies.

Question A: Using public funds to purchase and forgive medical debt at a 100-1 ratio will encourage people to access preventative care.

Economist	Institution	Opinion	Confidence	Comment
Jonathan Andreas	Bluffton University	Uncertain	4	It may have a marginal effect, but probably so small as to be immeasurable. The main way to use funds to encourage preventative care is to do it directly. Preventative care is relatively cheap and almost all medical debt is for expensive health treatments, not preventative care.
David Brasington	University of Cincinnati	Strongly Disagree	10
Ron Cheung	Oberlin College	Disagree	6
Kenneth Fah	Ohio Dominican University	Agree	10
Bob Gitter	Ohio Wesleyan University	Uncertain	5	I am not sure that preventative care is a big share of medical debt. Also, this program forgives debt for past expenditures. It is hard to know if an expenditure I make now would get forgiven later.
Paul Holmes	Ashland University	Agree	6	I can imagine a scenario where people with debt might avoid going to the doctor, either in order to avoid incurring more debt, or because that would put them 'on the radar'. I suspect that this wouldn't be a large effect, but I'm excited to see how this turns out as a policy experiment.
Michael Jones	University of Cincinnati	No Opinion	5
Charles Kroncke	Mount Saint Joseph University	Strongly Agree	10	Fear of medical debt is one of the main reasons why people stay home when they have a medical emergency. Uncertainty about the cost of preventative care keeps people from seeking it out.
Trevon Logan	Ohio State University	Uncertain	8
Diane Monaco	Economics Professor	Agree	8	Local governments (Counties & City Councils) are reaching agreements with area hospitals to relieve medical debt for low-income people. Those agreements are leveraging American Rescue Plan Act funds (An economic stimulus bill signed into law by President Biden in March 2021) to purchase medical debt, settling accounts for a fraction of their value, in cooperation with RIP Medical Debt. For example, RIP Medical Debt which is a “debt collector” of sorts buys medical debt but instead of trying to profit, they send out notices to consumers saying that their debt has been cleared. To date, RIP Medical Debt has purchased $6.7 billion in unpaid debt and relieved 3.6 million people of this type of debt. The group says retiring $100 in debt costs an average of $1. To qualify debtors’ incomes must be between 200% and 400% of the poverty level, or $55,500 and $111,000 for a family of four. People who make below 200% of the federal poverty level are not billed for medical care, however, there are often other avenues for dispatching medical debt for people below that line. As a result, 8.2 million FEWER Americans are now struggling with medical debt under the Biden administration. Medical debt is not a reliable predictor of overall financial health which generally reflects inequities in health insurance coverage.
Joe Nowakowski	Muskingum University	No Opinion	1
Ejindu Ume	Miami University	Agree	8
Kathryn Wilson	Kent State University	Disagree	5	Since this would be forgiveness of past debt, I would not expect it to impact future medical decisions.

Question B: Using public funds to purchase and forgive medical debt at a 100-1 ratio will reduce health disparities.

Economist	Institution	Opinion	Confidence	Comment
Jonathan Andreas	Bluffton University	Agree	5	It directly reduces health FINANCING disparities, ex post. If low-access people become aware of this, they will seek more health care without worrying quite as much about financing.
David Brasington	University of Cincinnati	Disagree	8
Ron Cheung	Oberlin College	Agree	7
Kenneth Fah	Ohio Dominican University	Agree	10
Bob Gitter	Ohio Wesleyan University	Uncertain	6	The devil is in the details. Would all debt later be forgiven? If so, yes. If not, how will it work?
Paul Holmes	Ashland University	Agree	8	I suspect this would reduce the number of people avoiding medical care for financial reasons, though again I don't expect the effect to be large. But it does seem relatively well-targeted, so I'd be optimistic it might make health care access more equitable.
Michael Jones	University of Cincinnati	No Opinion	5
Charles Kroncke	Mount Saint Joseph University	Strongly Agree	10	Forgiving dental debt would also be a step forward at reducing health disparities.
Trevon Logan	Ohio State University	Uncertain	9
Diane Monaco	Economics Professor	Agree	8	Local governments (Counties & City Councils) are reaching agreements with area hospitals to relieve medical debt for low-income people. Those agreements are leveraging American Rescue Plan Act funds (An economic stimulus bill signed into law by President Biden in March 2021) to purchase medical debt, settling accounts for a fraction of their value, in cooperation with RIP Medical Debt. For example, RIP Medical Debt which is a “debt collector” of sorts buys medical debt but instead of trying to profit, they send out notices to consumers saying that their debt has been cleared. To date, RIP Medical Debt has purchased $6.7 billion in unpaid debt and relieved 3.6 million people of this type of debt. The group says retiring $100 in debt costs an average of $1. To qualify debtors’ incomes must be between 200% and 400% of the poverty level, or $55,500 and $111,000 for a family of four. People who make below 200% of the federal poverty level are not billed for medical care, however, there are often other avenues for dispatching medical debt for people below that line. As a result, 8.2 million FEWER Americans are now struggling with medical debt under the Biden administration. Medical debt is not a reliable predictor of overall financial health which generally reflects inequities in health insurance coverage.
Joe Nowakowski	Muskingum University	No Opinion	1
Ejindu Ume	Miami University	Agree	7
Kathryn Wilson	Kent State University	Uncertain	5	I think it will definitely reduce economic disparities. Those who have their debt purchased will have more disposable income, a higher credit score, and be in a better position to finance purchases such as a house or car in the future. The economic security may provide some health benefits, but I see the primary effect as reducing economic disparities rather than health disparities.

Question C: Using public funds to purchase and forgive medical debt at a 100-1 ratio will grow local economies.

Economist	Institution	Opinion	Confidence	Comment
Jonathan Andreas	Bluffton University	Disagree	3	I think this will grow the economy less than the average spending program, so the opportunity cost FOR GROWTH means this won't help with that. But economic growth isn't the only objective of government. If it was, we'd just kill off people at retirement age when they stop being productive for "the economy" instead of paying them to "do nothing" as we do using our Social Security and Medicare programs. Like those programs for helping the retired, the main reason to bring people out of medical bankruptcy is to directly make their lives better.
David Brasington	University of Cincinnati	Disagree	10
Ron Cheung	Oberlin College	Agree	5
Kenneth Fah	Ohio Dominican University	Agree	9
Bob Gitter	Ohio Wesleyan University	Disagree	6	If we want access to health care for all, than health insurance for all is better than the chance of buying medical debt to forgive it.
Paul Holmes	Ashland University	Agree	6	Not certain on this, but I think it's reasonably likely that the benefits would outweigh the costs, and much of the benefit accrues locally, so again I'm optimistic; but definitely a data question.
Michael Jones	University of Cincinnati	No Opinion	5
Charles Kroncke	Mount Saint Joseph University	Agree	9	Using public funds to purchase and forgive debt will grow the economy because it will keep people alive and healthy and thus they will continue to go to work and be productive.
Trevon Logan	Ohio State University	Disagree	8
Diane Monaco	Economics Professor	Agree	8	Local governments (Counties & City Councils) are reaching agreements with area hospitals to relieve medical debt for low-income people. Those agreements are leveraging American Rescue Plan Act funds (An economic stimulus bill signed into law by President Biden in March 2021) to purchase medical debt, settling accounts for a fraction of their value, in cooperation with RIP Medical Debt. For example, RIP Medical Debt which is a “debt collector” of sorts buys medical debt but instead of trying to profit, they send out notices to consumers saying that their debt has been cleared. To date, RIP Medical Debt has purchased $6.7 billion in unpaid debt and relieved 3.6 million people of this type of debt. The group says retiring $100 in debt costs an average of $1. To qualify debtors’ incomes must be between 200% and 400% of the poverty level, or $55,500 and $111,000 for a family of four. People who make below 200% of the federal poverty level are not billed for medical care, however, there are often other avenues for dispatching medical debt for people below that line. As a result, 8.2 million FEWER Americans are now struggling with medical debt under the Biden administration. Medical debt is not a reliable predictor of overall financial health which generally reflects inequities in health insurance coverage.
Joe Nowakowski	Muskingum University	No Opinion	1
Ejindu Ume	Miami University	Uncertain	7
Kathryn Wilson	Kent State University	Agree	7