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District 9 Councilmember and mayoral candidate John Courage joined leaders from the city’s Metropolitan Health District and the nonprofit Undue Medical Debt to announce a partnership that will lead to the elimination of $60 million in medical debt for 45,000 San Antonio residents.
Undue Medical Debt, formerly known as RIP Medical Debt, purchases large bundles of medical debt for pennies on the dollar in the for-profit debt market or from hospital systems and then eliminates that debt.
“Because the people in those portfolios that we're buying — and we buy thousands at a time — do not have the means to pay, it is not profitable for a for-profit debt buyer to buy that debt portfolio and get a return on investment unless they price it very, very low,” Undue Medical Debt CEO Allison Sesso said. “So as a nonprofit, we take advantage of that pricing of that market, if you will, for medical debt. But when we get our hands on that debt, we erase it.”
Courage said he used $115,000 in surplus dollars from his council district’s discretionary fund — a pool of money council members can use for priorities in their districts — to eliminate the $60 million in medical debt.
“What has been presented to you today by Undue Medical Debt, as you heard, will have a positive impact on the lives of 45,000 San Antonio residents with a financial impact of $60 million,” he said during Wednesday’s press conference in front of City Hall. “This kind of health intervention is unheard of in San Antonio and in Texas.”
He said he has been working on the partnership with Undue Medical Debt for more than a year.
San Antonio Metropolitan Health District Director Claude Jacobs said eliminating medical debt has major health impacts, and that one in six San Antonio residents holds medical debt.
“When someone faces medical debt, they often have to cut back on other essential needs, things like food, clothing and even housing,” he said. “So this only deepens the financial instability and makes getting care they need even harder.”
Jacobs said rates of medical debt are twice as high in communities of color in San Antonio.
Undue Medical Debt has relieved more than $15 billion in medical debt from nearly 10 million of the country’s lowest-income borrowers, including eliminating $13.9 million in medical debt from nearly 10,000 Bexar County residents in 2023.
The partnership between Undue Medical Debt and the City of San Antonio is the first time the nonprofit has worked with a government in Texas.
Courage said he considered Wednesday’s announcement a high mark of his time at City Hall.
“I want to say in my eight years as a member of the city council and in service to my constituents in District 9 and the residents across San Antonio, I believe this is one of the most significant and impactful programs I've initiated,” he said.
