New York book publisher Casey McIntyre's health insurance allowed her to receive cancer care without saddling her family in medical debt. But as she navigated the health-care system, she met other patients who weren't so fortunate.
RIP Medical Debt, a nonprofit based in New York, buys medical debt through donations, then wipes those debts clean. It's a solution rooted in its CEO's impatience with waiting for the system to fix itself.
Some lost their homes. Some emptied their retirement accounts. Some struggled to feed and clothe their families. Medical debt now touches more than 100 million people in America, as the U.S. health care system pushes patients into debt on a mass scale. Debtors are from all walks of life and all corners of the country. Here are their stories ― how they got into debt, what they’ve given up for it, and how they’re living with the burden.
Soon after giving birth to a daughter two months premature, Terri Logan received a bill from the hospital. She recoiled from the string of numbers separated by commas.
Two months ahead of her due date with her second daughter, Terri Logan felt weighed down by stress. She was a high school math teacher in Union City, Georgia, and was ending her relationship with the baby's father.