Doug Aldeen• ERISA Healthcare Attorney and General Counsel
The state of Connecticut plans to erase $2 billion in medical debt for its residents.
Caveat Emptor and Key Inquiries: 1) Determine the original price of the medical services and 2) How many individuals were otherwise eligible for financial assistance? Perhaps $20mm is still overpaying these hospitals…
“No one wakes up and says, ‘I want to go to the hospital,'” said Ayesha Clarke, interim director of the Hartford-based nonprofit Health Equity Solutions. “However, when it happens, seeking care should not result in a lifetime of financial hardship.
Though no other state has sought to erase medical debt in the way Lamont has proposed, the model has been implemented at the municipal level in Somerville, Mass.; Toledo, Ohio; and Cook County, Illinois, which includes Chicago. Lamont said Connecticut plans to partner with the same nonprofit as those local governments, a New York-based group called RIP Medical Debt.”
CT governor pitches erasing billions of dollars of medical debt (ctinsider.com)
