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These Former Debt Collectors Decided to Ditch the Industry, Buy Up Medical Debt, and Forgive It
Key Excerpts from Article on Website of Yes! Magazine
Posted: August 30th, 2015
http://www.yesmagazine.org/new-economy/these-former-debt-col...
When Paola Gonzalez received a phone call from RIP Medical Debt, she was certain what she heard was a mistake. A prank, maybe. The caller said a $950 hospital bill had been paid for in full. She wouldnt have to worry about it again. They wanted to pay a bill for me, she said. I was just speechless. The 24-year-old student ... has lupus, a chronic autoimmune disease. I cant always work, Gonzalez said. Ill be fine today and sick tomorrow. Its really amazing that people would help out like this. Gonzalez is one of many people who have had a debt paid by RIP Medical Debt, a nonprofit founded by two former debt collectors, Jerry Ashton and Craig Antico, that buys debt on the open market and then abolishes it, no strings attached. In [its first] year, the group has abolished just under $400,000. On July 4, it launched a year-long campaign to ... abolish $17.6 million of other peoples debt. It works like this: typical collection agencies will buy debts from private practices, hospitals, and other collection agencies. The buyers often [purchase] a debt for pennies on the dollar while charging the debtor the full amount, plus additional fees. Antico and Ashton are plugged into the same marketplace. They buy the debt for around one percent of the amount it's worth. Then, they forgive it. Ashton worked in the debt collections business for more than 30 years. The industry treated debts as commodities and sold them for a profit while the debtor struggled to pay off the full amount. That I find to be unconscionable, says Ashton.
Note: Ashton was inspired to rethink debt by Rolling Jubilee, a program that came out of the Occupy Wall Street movement which similarly abolishes student loan debt.
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