Some 9,000 people stuck with delinquent medical bills have had their debts forgiven, courtesy of HBO host John Oliver.
Oliver added a little show-biz flair, pressing a large red button to
symbolize the debt forgiveness and claiming it eclipsed the $8 million
giveaway by talk-show host Oprah Winfrey when she gave a car to each
member of her studio audience one day, making it the biggest ever.
“Are you ready to make television history?” Oliver said. “Let’s do this!”
Oliver said it was “disturbingly easy” for his show to set up a
company, which it called Central Asset Recovery Professionals, or CARP,
after the bottom-feeding fish, and incorporate it in Mississippi to make
the purchase.
Oliver’s show engages in a form of investigative comedy, this week
examining an overlooked industry. Institutions often sell their debt for
pennies on the dollar to companies who then attempt to collect on the
bills. These companies operate with little regulation, and sometimes
employ shady and abusive collectors who try to intimidate people into
paying, he said.
RIPMedicaldebt.org,
a nonprofit that raises money to buy debt and forgive the bills owed by
people who can least afford to pay them, welcomed the attention.
“It’s absolutely fabulous,” said Craig Antico, CEO of RIPMedicaldebt.org. “It puts a light on a problem that few people know exists.”
Antico’s organization was already seeing a boost in donations Monday. RIPMedicaldebt.org has been concentrating lately on buying debt owed by U.S. military veterans.
He said people who owe bills should pay them, but they should not be
forced to choose between paying medical debts and paying for food and
shelter. He said people should never use credit cards to pay off medical
debts.
“If people paid attention to (Oliver’s show) and it got them upset,
they should realize that we can eradicate much of this debt if we all
banded together to help each other,” Antico said. “People can make a
donation of $50 and wipe out a $10,000 debt.”
Within a few hours of Oliver’s show airing, people were writing to
Antico’s blog to see if their debt was included in what Oliver
purchased. “Last Week Tonight” is working with RIPMedicaldebt.org
to notify people that their debt has been wiped out, and those affected
will be getting letters from the organization within the next few
weeks, he said.
The individual debts range from $50 to more than $250,000, he said.
All are outside the statute of limitations, meaning the people who owe
the money cannot be sued. Since the debts were incurred at Texas
hospitals, most of the people who owe money are from that state, he
said.
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