Riding His Harley to Abolish Medical Debt

To many of the families who are helped, medical debt forgiveness may mean the difference between having adequate food and heat or going to bed hungry and cold.

Today Col. (retired) Mikel Burroughs is on his Harley with his wife, part of his journey riding 4,163 miles in eight days to raise money for the forgiveness of veterans’ medical debt through the non-profit RIP Medical Debt.

They will even ride 484 miles together June 15^thon their wedding anniversary – all the way from Chicago to Omaha!  Now that’s a “rubber meets the road” commitment by a husband and wife to fellow Americans drowning in medical debt!

Col. Burrough’s goal is to raise donations of $25,000 through this cross-country ride. If he reaches that goal, then he will be able to wipe out $2.5 million in medical debt for veterans!  I was so impressed with this cause as I researched the article that I already made my donation here.

“Each year, veterans are left on the hook for billions of dollars of medical debt, particularly for emergency care outside of the VA system.”
Col. (retired) Mikel Burroughs

What is RIP Medical Debt?

Do you think “RIP” stands for “ripping up” medical debt or for “Rest in Peace” medical debt? Either way, I like the sound of it. RIP Medical Debt was founded in 2014 by two former collection industry executives, Craig Antico and Jerry Ashton.

RIP Medical Debt has been on a tear (pun intended) since their founding, as they have already abolished over $120 million in medical debt for about 60,000 Americans.  “Abolished” means abolished, gone, zeroed out, no more on the credit report. Their huge goal is to forgive $1 billion in medical debt for Americans…and then to keep going from there.

To many of the families who are helped, medical debt forgiveness may mean the difference between having adequate food or going to bed hungry.

“RIP is working to forgive $1 billion in medical debt for Americans!” says the website home page.

How Can They Forgive so Much Medical Debt?

Having worked in the collections industry, the staff at RIP Medical Debt knows where to find “distressed collections.”  They can go to hospitals and debt collection companies and purchase bundles of unpaid medical debt for pennies on the dollar.

A normal debt collection company would then start hounding the hundreds or thousands of people in that bundle of unpaid medical bills. I expect you know someone who has faced this nightmare, or maybe you have faced it yourself.  Letters saying – pay now.  Emails saying – pay now.  Phone calls, day and night, saying – pay now.

Have you heard the expression “You can’t squeeze blood from a turnip”?  But that doesn’t stop the debt collection calls…unless RIP Medical Debt buys the unpaid medical bills debt.

Then an amazing thing happens.  They actually FORGIVE the debt of those hundreds or thousands of people!

Imagine how that must feel when people open their mail and read the letter from RIP Medical Debt telling them their debt is forgiven.

Because they buy the debt on average for a penny on the dollar, any money you donate to RIP Medical Debt gets multiplied by a hundred!  In other words, if you donate $100, they use that $100 to forgive $10,000 of medical debt.

Instead of sending out “Pay now or else” letters as collection agencies do, RIP Medical Debt sends out “Your medical debt has been forgiven” letters.

One Statistic Shows Why Medical Debt is Such a Burden for People

Many Americans have to choose each month between paying a medical bill and buying food or paying rent.

A 2016 Kaiser Family Foundation study reported: “Effects of medical bills on household finances and ability to afford basic needs:  Among those with medical bill problems…Over a third in each group (34 percent of the insured and 39 percent of the uninsured) say they were unable to pay for basic necessities like food, heat, or housing as a result of medical bills.”

Join Others Who are Making a Difference

Join nurses in Michigan and Minnesota who raised enough money within their own ranks to forgive $3.6 million in medical debt for residents of those two states.

Join John Oliver, host of the TV show Last Week Tonight, who partnered with RIP Medical Debt to help nearly 9,000 people.  They forgave $14,922,261 of medical debt from residents of Texas for less than $60,000.

Join three Pensacola, Florida students who started fund-raising to forgive debt as a high school project and have so far abolished almost $3 million in local medical debt.

Join Craig Lack, owner of a healthcare consulting company, who approached RIP to help erase debt.  With his donation, last month they were able to forgive the medical debt of 734 veterans ($1,240,060 in medical debt).

Join Col. Burroughs

If you would like to join me and donate to help Col. Burroughs abolish the medical debts of more American veterans, click this link:

The work RIP Medical Debt is doing can make a huge difference in the lives of thousands – even millions – of our fellow Americans.  RIP Medical Debt has already abolished over $120 million in medical debt for about 60,000 Americans.  Spread the word (and donate if you are able).