Kentucky Medical Debt Relief Reaches $153 Million for 67,000 Residents as Second-Round Letters Go Out in November
Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear announced on October 29 that a total of $153 million in medical debt has now been erased for 67,000 Kentuckians under the Team Kentucky Medical Debt Relief Program, with the second round cancelling about $50.6 million for another 22,000 people, following a first round that erased more than $100 million for 46,000 people.
Beshear established the program by executive order in September, aiming to relieve $250 million in debt for 130,000 eligible Kentuckians. The state directed $2.5 million to Undue Medical Debt, a national nonprofit that acquires medical debt from participating hospitals and collection agencies; for Kentucky, the breakdown equals $100 erased for every $1 spent.
There is no application process and relief cannot be requested, the governor's office said; eligible Kentuckians will receive an official relief letter, with second-round letters expected to be mailed around the week of November 9. To qualify, a resident must owe at least 5 percent of their annual income in medical bills or earn at or below 400 percent of the federal poverty level, about $100,000 for a family of three.
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：Frankfort 的肯塔基州议会大厦。TheLexingtonTimes 摄，CC BY-SA 4.0，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / The Kentucky State Capitol in Frankfort. Photo by TheLexingtonTimes, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
