Yves here. I have mixed feelings about charity rather than legal or political action to stop abusive and illegal practices. We wrote extensively about medical debt many years ago. Generally, defaulting buyers of these debts want to collect even though the obligations are beyond the statute of limitations, or they are disputed. Additionally the loan may be made invalid by not being properly transferred.
The fact that the church in profile, Trinity Moravian Church in North Carolina, needed to spend only $17,000 to retire $2.2 million in medical debt, shows how deep it was.
But the way this game works is that greedy debt buyers go after former patients with these unusual loans. If the debtor does not respond, which may be by writing back and denying the validity of the claim, the debtor can go to court and try to obtain a default judgment. Stop that or fight the time and legal costs….which victims sometimes don’t have.
So while one should applaud this grassroots aid, Trinity Moravian Church should step forward and get the media and activists together to make this kind of rescue less necessary. It should be made a crime to sell medical debt that is past the statute of limitations or improperly transferred, to both the seller and the buyer, with very high fines, punitive damages to any victims, in return for their legal costs and expenses. And people, not just corporations, must be jointly and equally responsible. Cashing in on some bad managers can be a little overwhelming. That will not stop these bad habits but it will reduce them.
Written by Noam N. Levey. Originally published on KFF Health News
Pastor John Jackman, who leads Trinity Moravian Church in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, says the church’s campaign for medical bills has brought people together in political circles. He says: “This is the easiest money I have ever received. (Allison Lee Isley of KFF Health News)
Other issues, such as immigration or student loans, further divide the Trinity Moravian Church.
“We have a lot of political beliefs,” said the Rev. John Jackman, who leads the 114-year-old red brick church near Winston-Salem’s old textile mills. Conservative Republicans live with liberal Democrats. President Donald Trump’s supporters mingle with his fiercest critics. “It’s definitely a purple church,” said Jackman.
But four years ago, when Jackman proposed a new church project to reduce medical debt for residents of the greater Winston-Salem area, there was no opposition. “This is the easiest money I’ve ever received,” he said. “All I do is tell people what we do, and they write me a check.”
Few issues have been more explosive in politics in recent years than health care, pitting Democrats and Republicans in bitter debates over the Affordable Care Act, Medicaid, and other issues.
Yet moved by the idea that the medical bills their neighbors were facing were unjust, Trinity Moravian members, regardless of their political affiliation, rushed to write $25 or $50 checks to pay the bills.
They helped develop church movements across the state and across the country and inspired North Carolina government officials to address medical debt. The effort drew praise from conservative broadcaster Glenn Beck.
The small church’s success also highlighted a common thread in American health care — anxiety and frustration so widespread that many patients end up in debt.
Earlier this year, Trinity completed its eighth medical debt campaign, part of what the church calls the Debt Jubilee Project. This raised over $17,000. That helped retire more than $2.2 million in debt. Medical debt can be bought for pennies on the dollar because lenders believe that most debts will not be paid.
Nationwide, an estimated 100 million seniors have some form of health care debt. More than half of US adults have had such debts at some point.
At Trinity Moravian Church, which has about 200 members, it wasn’t hard to find news about crushing medical bills.
“I see people going into debt every minute of every day,” said Catherine Coe, who works in the hospital system’s accounting department. “We are all just one medical building because of the financial collapse.”
Coe grew up coming to Trinity with his grandmother. He left the church as an adult before joining the church last year. Coe, who describes himself as a conservative, voted for Trump.
Terri Mabe, who has been coming to Trinity for decades, is on the other side of the country’s political divide. He said he will not be able to stand up to the president, who he said “doesn’t really care about the people of this country.”
Mabe, 70, has seen the doctor’s bill up close. He has worked in the construction industry.
“Between projects many times you lose your job,” he said. Then you get sick. Next thing you know, you owe $5,000, $10,000 that you can’t pay. You don’t pay your mortgage at all. And you’re like: ‘I can’t afford it. What do I do now?’
Both Coe and Mabe say the differences between the parties don’t matter. “There is no political divide when it comes to health care debt,” said Coe. “Everything brings us together.”
Jackman said he got the idea to do something about medical debt during a time of violence, when an increasing number of people turned to the church for help.
“I heard that the reason they couldn’t pay the electricity bill was because they were in the hospital for a few days and then they were hit with this huge amount of money,” he recalled. “And I started hearing this over and over again.”
Jackman learned about a non-profit organization called Undue Medical Debt that buys unpaid medical bills from hospitals and debt collectors so the debts can be cleared.
The church’s first campaign, in 2022, set a goal of raising $5,000 to retire nearly $500,000 in medical debt owed to Forsyth County residents. The campaign reached its goal in just six weeks, fueled largely by donations under $50.
Jackman, who has been a pastor for more than four decades, attributed part of the success to the faith of the church. “One of our ideas is that we cannot fix everything, but we should fix what we can in the area where it is planted,” he said.
Trinity members, regardless of their political leanings, also said they see something broken in the system that puts sick people into debt.
Paul Sluder, 78, who doesn’t respect any political party, used to work for a credit union. He said he racked up a lot of debt before he retired.
He said most people wanted to pay what they owed. When they got sick, they often had no choice but to go into debt.
“You have no control. You have to take care of yourself or take care of your loved ones,” Sluder said. “It’s incredibly unfair, and I think the system has become dysfunctional.”
Surveys suggest that there are many common reasons regarding medical debt.
In the 2025 Unjustified Medical Debt Survey, more than 75% of Republicans and Democrats said collection agencies should not be allowed to garnish patients’ wages to pay medical debt. And in recent years, bipartisan measures to expand coverage for medical debt have passed in both blue and red states.
Coe, a Republican, said he would support more limits on how much medical debt people can be forced to carry. “Why can’t we settle medical debt for a certain dollar amount, and then it’s written off or forgiven?” he asked.
After completing a recent loan drive, Trinity hosted a special event, assisted by children from the local Scouting group.
Jackman stood in front of the congregation and held up a pamphlet with a long list of names, people in the district whose debt had been bought and canceled by the congregation.
“On this day of Jubilee,” announced Jackman, “we are taking action to forgive the debts of many of our neighbors as God has forgiven our debts.”
As the congregation stood, Jackman blew out a lighter and burned the list of 1,631 names. The paper burned with a yellow flame. The scouts removed the confetti poppers. The choir sang, the congregation was silent.
Afterwards, the members went downstairs for a spaghetti lunch in the church basement, served by the scouts.
Reflecting on the celebrations of this day, many members of the church said they hope that their work on doctors’ bills can encourage others to end political differences and work together.
“There is a lot of division, a lot of anger,” said Cynthia Tesh, 72.
“We have to face each other,” he said. “If we start caring about each other, things will change, if we start considering other people and not just ourselves, things will change.
