BLACKSBURG – The Secular Society, a non-profit corporation located in Blacksburg, has just purchased its largest tranche of medical debt, eliminating $51,348,305 in medical debt for 35,007 residents of 18 counties of Southwest Virginia.
To be eligible for purchase and abolition, the debt must be held by someone with a family income less than 4 times the federal poverty level, or by someone for whom medical debt is 5% or more of their annual income. The medical debt of an uninsured citizen, as well as that of an underinsured citizen, is eligible for purchase. Medical debt relief cannot be requested, and the eligible recipients simply receive a letter with the good news.
Once the debts have been purchased, further collection attempts cease, credit reports are corrected, access to medical care is reinstated, and residents of Southwest Virginia regain peace of mind.
The Secular Society has again partnered with Undue Medical Debt, a non-profit corporation
headquartered in New York, to purchase and abolish this debt, to notify the debtors in writing that their debt has been cancelled, and to ensure that the credit report has been updated.
For those whose medical debts have been abolished, relief is a gift, an act of generosity from an independent third party, and therefore, the abolished debt is not treated as taxable income for the debtor.
The citizens in seventeen Southwest Virginia counties – Washington (7,479), Smyth (6,950), Wise (5,409), Montgomery (4,111), Russell (2,431), Carroll (1,604), Tazewell (1,557), Pulaski (1,229), Lee (997), Scott (887), Patrick (882), Dickenson (647), Wythe (378), Giles (138), Franklin (131), Floyd (101), Craig (70), and other counties (6) – received these medical debt relief benefits.
The Secular Society
