Paying Off People’s Medical Debt Has Little Impact on Their Lives, Study Finds
The New York Times
A nonprofit group called R.I.P. Medical Debt has relieved Americans of $11 billion in hospital bills. But that did not improve their mental health or their credit scores, a study found.
Over the past decade, R.I.P. Medical Debt has grown from a tiny nonprofit group that received less than $3,000 in donations to a multimillion-dollar force in health care philanthropy.
It has done so with a unique and simple strategy to tackling the enormous amounts that Americans owe hospitals: buying up old bills that would otherwise be sold to collection agencies and wiping out the debt.
Since 2014, R.I.P. Medical Debt estimates that it has eliminated more than $11 billion of debt with the help of major donations from philanthropists and even city governments. In January, New York City’s mayor, Eric Adams, announced plans to give the organization $18 million.
But a study published by a group of economists on Monday calls into question the premise of the high-profile charity. After following 213,000 people who were in debt and randomly selecting some to work with the nonprofit group, the researchers found that debt relief did not improve the mental health or the credit scores of debtors, on average. And those whose bills had been paid were just as likely to forgo medical care as those whose bills were left unpaid.
“We were disappointed,” said Ray Kluender, an assistant professor at Harvard Business School and a co-author of the study. “We don’t want to sugarcoat it.”
Allison Sesso, R.I.P. Medical Debt’s executive director, said the study was at odds with what the group had regularly heard from those it had helped. “We’re hearing back from people who are thrilled,” she said.
Harry Styles is host and musical guest, while James Austin Johnson and Colin Jost cement their duo as President Trump and his defense secretary on “Saturday Night Live.”
Eleven medical organizations advised changes to preventive cardiac care that it says could markedly reduce heart attacks and strokes.
Two recent deaths tied to for-profit clinics in Canada raised concerns about the health effects of having plasma drawn as often as twice a week.
Amazon, Google and others struck deals in the Persian Gulf to foot the bill for A.I. development. Iran has now threatened attacks against the companies’ infrastructure in the region.
Despite the lack of big names or critical hype, the romance adaptation “Virgin River” has been one of Netflix’s biggest, most reliable successes.
A “red alert” involving the private Blue Ghost mission in lunar orbit a year ago highlights a growing number of incidents above Earth’s neighbor.
The tech giant pushed back the timeline after spending billions to be on the cutting edge of artificial intelligence.
Practitioners nationwide are striving to do what’s best for children’s health, while staying supportive in the face of mistrust and confusion.
A group of scientists and law enforcement officials are pointing to the role moss can play to help solve crimes.
Blaming chatbots, they are joining an earlier push for better protections by parents who say social media contributed to their children’s deaths.
Partula snails all but vanished from Polynesia after the arrival of a carnivorous foreign snail. But a global alliance of zoos has worked to bring them back.
Though high rates of the disease persist among the nearby Indigenous communities, the Canadian government is weighing rules that may allow energy giants to release treated mining waste into the river system.
A new study offers clues as to how the insects survive flooding as they emerge from a hibernation-like phase every winter.