Mississippi has a medical debt problem. According to The Urban Institute, 19% of Mississippi residents have medical debt, putting them at risk of being sued by hospitals and collection agencies if they are unable to pay on time.
This has a cascading effect on their lives, forcing them to choose between basic necessities or paying medical bills, destroying their credit, and making them put off future health care needs. Between 2018 and 2020, debt collectors in Hinds County alone sued patients 3,600 times for not being able to pay their bills on time.
It has also put over half of Mississippi’s 61 rural hospitals at risk of closing their doors as patients’ inability to pay has put the hospitals behind on their books as well.
Doctors and hospital administrators say Medicaid expansion would be a big help to these rural hospitals, ensuring that patients can access care and hospitals get paid.
Jason Little, President and CEO of Baptist Memorial Health Care Corp., said “… When a greater number of people have greater access to care when they otherwise couldn’t afford it, it’s a game changer. … it’s still not too late for states to make that decision.”
Expanding Medicaid would provide health insurance to more than 200,000 Mississippians, reducing their future medical debt burden.
In the meantime, some local organizations and churches are stepping up to relieve medical debt. Northwood Church in Gulfport, Mississippi recently paid off $4.1 million in medical debt for Mississippi families in partnership with RIP Medical Debt.
Just this week, Georgia-based organization Fair Fight announced it had partnered with RIP Medical Debt to forgive $212 million in medical debt across the South. In Mississippi alone, it bought $2.3 million in debt for 2,058 individuals.
"I know firsthand how medical costs and a broken healthcare system put families further and further in debt,” said Stacey Abrams, founder of Fair Fight. “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. 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.”