The Covid-19 pandemic has shed light on the critical, irreplaceable role our country’s healthcare workers and first responders play in protecting our health and well-being.

Healthcare providers are working around the clock with poor provisions for their own safety. Home healthcare workers, who frequently drive long distances for poor wages to care for our elderly and infirm, are still performing that physically demanding work in this newly dangerous pandemic environment. The national guard and other branches of the military have been called on to prop up make-shift hospitals and provide a range of emergency services. As a demonstration of our profound gratitude to those showing up day after day on the frontlines of this crisis, RIP Medical Debt has set up a special fund and campaign to target and eliminate their medical debt.

On top of all the extra precautions and rampant fears related to self-preservation in this cloud of contagion, American families are facing severe financial stress due to unprecedented job loss. RIP Medical Debt appreciates the outsized impact COVID-19 has had on so many low-income workers who have lost their jobs and have little to fall back on. That is why we are also focused on relieving the medical debts of these resource strained families. Alleviating their medical debts will support their financial well-being and ultimately help propel the economic recovery of our communities.

RIP Medical Debt has reviewed thousands of job titles, professional licenses, and union affiliations directly related to healthcare, first responders and service fields. We have added that data to our portfolio selection process and are now able to focus our debt relief efforts on them.

Our approach enables the average person to remove the medical debt burdens overwhelming others for pennies on the dollar.  By combining donations we are able to buy large amounts of debt in bundled portfolios, millions of dollars at a time at a fraction of the original cost.

RIP has already identified more than $70 million in unpaid, un-payable medical debt belonging to those in healthcare/first responder roles as identified by union membership or professional license — and the nonprofit is actively looking for more qualifying accounts. After those debts are paid, RIP will use raised funds to relieve debts belonging to those in the service and hospitality industries, who have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic. Finally, the fund’s third tier of relief will go towards financially struggling families in those areas hit hardest by the coronavirus.

While we can’t buy and relieve COVID-19 related healthcare debt yet, it is critically important to remove all medical debt from the backs, and credit reports, of those with the most exposure to this virus (healthcare workers, first responders) and those who’ve lost their economic stability. RIP Medical Debt will, of course, gladly purchase and relieve COVID specific debt when it becomes available, but for now we are focused on removing the pre-COVID debt burdens of those sacrificing the most at this moment.

Will you please make a gift today to show your gratitude to our nation’s emergency crisis workers and express solidarity with those who could use any extra financial assistance during this extraordinarily challenging time?

Any Illness can cause financial shocks. This is especially true for novel coronavirus disease, COVID-19.

We have created a guide with tips for things you can do to reduce your risk of generating unpayable medical debt

Download the Guide