Pittsburgh City Councilman introduces proposal to erase medical debt
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) - Pittsburgh City Councilman Bobby Wilson wants to help residents erase their medical debt.
He's proposing that the city enters into an agreement with the national nonprofit "RIP Medical Debt."
The city would "buy" your healthcare debt for pennies on the dollar and forgive it.
Wilson said the city could use a million dollars from the American Rescue Plan funding for the proposal.
"It's been very encouraging to see the number of the people who would be impacted and those numbers come out to over 20,000 residents in the city of Pittsburgh who can benefit from this and it's right in line with the guidelines in terms of recovery and relief," he explained.
Wilson added that seven percent of households in Allegheny County have healthcare debt in collection.