More than 1,500 Maine residents will have a total of $1.8 million in medical debts canceled through a partnership between a local nonprofit and a national charity.

Mainers For Working Families, a progressive advocacy group, said it worked with the Boston-based organization Undue Medical Debt to erase some or all of the residents’ unpaid bills – an average of $1,200 in debt relief per person.

While $1.8 million is believed to be just a fraction of the overall debt burden on Maine patients – an estimated 40% of Maine residents carry some medical debt – the news could have a big impact for some.

“I live on $26,200 a year. I’m trying to fight, but I don’t have a lot of fight left in me,” said Kim Earley, an Old Town resident chosen to receive debt relief and featured in a video posted by Mainers For Working Families.

Earley said she became sick after the loss of her husband and 6-month-old son in a car accident 22 years ago and it took a long time for her to be diagnosed with Addison’s disease, a rare and chronic endocrine disorder.

“I owe probably $2 million now and it’s continuing to grow,” she said. “I am really hoping that someone sees what is actually happening out there. God, I hope so.”

Evan LeBrun, executive director of Mainers for Working Families, said his organization started looking into medical debt as an issue last year and created a project to shine a light on the human impact. Earley was one of the people featured.

“But we encountered so many people with serious, crippling medical debt and no way out,” he said.

LeBrun said the initial plan was to use some of his own organization’s funds to help pay debts, but when they started to look into the idea further, they found Undue Medical Debt. Since its founding in 2014, the organization has erased $10 billion in debts across the country, including $100 million in New Jersey this summer.

“We’re thankful for both this impactful donation – which will relieve an undue burden on over 1,000 Mainers – and for the storytelling and advocacy work being carried about by Mainers for Working Families,” President and CEO Allison Sesso said in a statement. “Medical debt is an issue that affects families financially and emotionally, and debt relief is only one tool in combating this national crisis.”

In recent years, as health care costs have ballooned, many individuals and families have crowdfunded on sites like GoFundMe to help pay for their care. In other cases, LeBrun said, people have paid off medical debt with high-interest credit cards, which only compounds their financial problems.

Undue Medical Debt leverages its donations to purchase bundled medical debt at steep discounts from hospitals and other providers. Among its major donors is Mackenzie Scott, ex-wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who gave $30 million in 2022.

Those who were chosen to have their debts paid in Maine couldn’t have income above four times the federal poverty line, which is about $60,000 for an individual, or must have debt of at least 5% of their annual salary.

Letters have been sent to individuals across the state. No action is required by recipients.

LeBrun said the $1.8 million in debt that was purchased by Undue Medical Debt in Maine represents “a drop in the bucket,” but he doesn’t know how much is out there.

“It’s a number we’ve tried to get,” he said.

A recent survey by Consumers For Affordable Healthcare, another local advocacy group, found four out of 10 Mainers have medical debt in their household, and nearly all of them who’ve accrued that debt within the past two years still have it.

“Too many Mainers struggle to pay for basic necessities, have used savings, have incurred credit card debt, or have been contacted by a collection agency, most often due to a bill from a hospital,” said Ann Woloson, executive director of Consumers for Affordable Health Care. “Too many have experienced discomfort or pain for longer than needed or delayed or skipped going to the doctor when sick. More needs to be done to constrain health care costs and prevent medical debt in Maine.”

Sometimes, patients face huge expenses because of so-called “facility fees” that are tacked onto bills. This spring, lawmakers passed a bill that makes medical bills more transparent by disclosing such fees.

LeBrun said his organization, which has advocated for other progressive policies, including paid family leave, tax fairness and creating a public power company, hopes to persuade Maine lawmakers to consider paying off more medical debts.

FIRST PARTNERSHIP IN MAINE

This is the first time Undue Medical Debt has partnered directly with a Maine organization to buy debts here.

However, Maine was among nine states where $45 million in debt was purchased this year with funds raised by Casey McIntyre Memorial & Debt Jubilee, a viral campaign started by the family of a 38-year-old woman who died of ovarian cancer.

Undue Medical Debt has worked with several other states and larger cities as well in recent years.

In New Jersey, it worked with the administration of Gov. Phil Murphy, who leveraged $550,000 in American Rescue Plan funds to help eliminate debt for nearly 50,000 residents there.

“Medical debt accumulates very quickly and can follow a person for decades,” Murphy said this summer. “With this strategic investment and our partnership with Undue, we are wiping the slate clean for thousands of New Jersey families, eliminating their debt, and making a real, tangible impact on their lives.”

Other organizations have raised money to help pay medical debts, too. In 2020, more than 100 United Church of Christ congregations across New England raised enough money to erase a total of $26.2 million in medical debt for thousands of families across the Northeast, including Maine.