Democrat Stacey Abrams’s Fair Fight Political Action Committee announced its $1.34 million donation to the nonprofit organization RIP Medical Debt.
The donation is to help clear the medical debt (a whopping $212 million) owed by 108,000 people in Georgia, Arizona, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.
“What is so important about this is the tie between Medicaid expansion and just crushing medical debt,” Lauren Groh-Wargo, CEO of allied group Fair Fight Action and senior adviser to the PAC, told The Associated Press.
Fair Fight said letters would be sent to those whose debts have been absolved to notify them. The organization says its donation cleared the debts of 69,000 people in Georgia, more than 27,000 people in Arizona, more than 8,000 people in Louisiana, and about 2,000 people apiece in Mississippi and Alabama.
“I know firsthand how medical costs and a broken healthcare system put families further and further in debt,” Abrams said in a statement. “Across the sunbelt and in the South, this problem is exacerbated in states like Georgia where failed leaders have callously refused to expand Medicaid, even during a pandemic.”
In a press release, RIP Medical Debt called Abrams’ $1.34 million gift “the third-largest in the history of RIP Medical Debt and the largest gift focused on the South.”
Abrams added, “Working with RIP Medical Debt, Fair Fight is stepping in where others have refused to take action. For people of color, the working poor and middle-class families facing crushing costs, we hope to relieve the strain on desperate Americans and on hospitals struggling to remain open.”
