Florida Makes It $5M in Medical Debt Abolished!

Better’s #BeatJohnOliver campaign reaches the Sunshine State

Today, by forgiving $1M worth of medical debt in Florida, Better has reached the $5M mark in our campaign to abolish $16M in medical debt across the US. In Florida, we discovered a disturbing report that suggests that medical debt is driving thousands of Americans out of their homes and on the streets.

Life on the Streets

Randall is homeless, calls the streets of South Florida his home and claims that medical debt that put him there.

“I got hit by a car and couldn’t afford to pay the medical bills. I started drinking.” (Randall)

Randall is not alone. In a report titled Life on the Streets that surveyed homeless people in Broward and Palm Beach counties in Florida, the researchers discovered a surprising, perhaps astonishing statistic.

“The most common cause of homelessness among the people we interviewed wasn’t drugs or alcohol — though drug addiction also ranked below the leading response. The Americans we surveyed pointed to medical debt as the fundamental element of their financial burdens.”

In fact, as reported by Jessica Lipscomb in the Miami New Times,

“…the top three reasons people in South Florida become homeless are all medical-related issues. Drug addiction and mental health rank just below medical debt on the list…” (Miami New Times)

Liscomb also points out that Florida has one of the highest populations without health insurance — only Texas is higher — although the impact of lack of health insurance is not a reliable gauge of medical debt since many Americans with medical debt are insured.

Better began the #BeatJohnOliver campaign not only to buy back and forgive the personal debt owed by thousands of Americans. We also wanted to learn more about how medical debt impacts individuals. We did not expect to discover that housing insecurity would be such a major factor. The implications are significant. Homelessness is major problem in the US. According to the non-profit End Homelessness,

“On a single night in January 2015, 564,708 people were experiencing homelessness — meaning they were sleeping outside or in an emergency shelter or transitional housing program.” (Homelessness in America)

This report from Florida backs up research by the Kaiser Family Foundation that medical bills impacted housing security.

“Medical debt has also been shown to contribute to housing instability, including missed mortgage or rent payments, property tax liens, difficulty qualifying for loans, eviction, disruptive moves to less expensive housing, rental applications denied and in extreme circumstances, homelessness. According to one study, 27 percent of people with medical debt also experienced such housing-related problems.”

It is often assumed that addiction and mental illness are the key reasons for homelessness but in Randall’s case, and that of almost half the people interviewed, it was medical debt that initiated the cascade of consequences.

The Cascade of Consequences

The Life on the Street report uses a sample of only 32 interviews and this is not large enough to make broad claims about the full impact of medical debt on homelessness in America, but the implications are of real concern. A more detailed report, Home Sick: How Medical Debt Undermines Housing Security points out that medical debt is accidental debt that,

“…creates a cascade of consequences that ultimately limit the ability of families with moderate incomes to have a secure place to live.”

The researchers interviewed 1,700 low income families. Here are their key findings.

“More than a quarter of respondents with medical debt said that the debt resulted in housing problems such as the inability to qualify for a mortgage, to make mortgage or rent payments, or to secure or maintain a home.

Respondents whose medical debts appeared on their credit reports were twice as likely to experience housing problems as those whose credit reports did not include medical debts.

􏰀Even relatively small amounts of debt — $500 or less — created housing problems for substantial numbers of people.

Having health insurance did not sufficiently protect many families from either medical debt or the resulting credit and housing problems.”

As the report points out in its conclusion, the problem is that the US healthcare system imposes a financial penalty on Americans for getting sick and there is almost no greater penalty than losing the roof over your head. Even when this doesn’t happen, there is a constant fear for those with medical debt. In our interview with Owen Sallee, a resident of Jensen Beach, Florida who owes $100,000, he said this was his biggest worry.

“I am going to have to sell my house, sell everything I own and live underneath a bridge because there’s no way I can pay everything off.”

It is likely Randall may once have had exactly the same fears.

Why We Abolished Debt in Florida

The residents of Florida who we are helping had medical debts that were unpaid and unpayable. We are lifting the burden of debt from their credit reports so that they can get on with their lives. Better would like to thank addiction.com for Life on the Streets and the reporting of Jessica Lipscomb of the Miami Day News.

Florida​ ​was​ ​our ​fifth​ ​stop​ ​in​ ​our state-by-state​ ​campaign to buy back medical debt,​ ​ending​ ​on​ ​John​ ​Oliver’s​ ​doorstep​ ​in​ ​New​ ​York​ ​City.​ ​To​ ​discover​ ​our next​ ​stop,​ ​follow us @BetterClaims and help us #BeatJohnOliver.