I think it’s likely to have positive effect, although I have significant uncertainty about the extent. The organization recently got a $50MM grant; hopefully the terms weren’t too restrictive and it can afford to fund some rigorous third-party research on the effectiveness of its programs. At least for an organization that has pulled in that much money, I think most EAs would want to see a randomized controlled trial of the effectiveness of this particular intervention before donating.
More generally, I’d be interested in a lobbying approach to this problem—reading the website, a fair amount of what the organization does seems to involve a moderately complex scheme to do debt relief without violating certain federal healthcare financing laws and insurance contracts. I can also think of a few ways to wipe or functionally wipe significant tranches of stale medical debt by legislative action that seem politically plausible on their face—e.g., writing some sort of auto-forgiveness provision into the Medicare terms of participation or restricting/forbidding collection activity under the FDCPA.
I agree, getting rid of medical debt is great but it doesn’t fix the underlying issue: unaffordable healthcare, especially for people with disabilities and chronic illnesses.
Some provisions in the affordable care act such as preventing insurers from not covering someone based on pre-existing conditions have helped reduce medical debt. Ideally, I would like to see a universal healthcare or a medicare for all type of model so that everyone can get the coverage that they need. There is a lot of data about how expanding medicare in different states has saved lives, resulted in less emergency room visits, etc.
I think it’s likely to have positive effect, although I have significant uncertainty about the extent. The organization recently got a $50MM grant; hopefully the terms weren’t too restrictive and it can afford to fund some rigorous third-party research on the effectiveness of its programs. At least for an organization that has pulled in that much money, I think most EAs would want to see a randomized controlled trial of the effectiveness of this particular intervention before donating.
More generally, I’d be interested in a lobbying approach to this problem—reading the website, a fair amount of what the organization does seems to involve a moderately complex scheme to do debt relief without violating certain federal healthcare financing laws and insurance contracts. I can also think of a few ways to wipe or functionally wipe significant tranches of stale medical debt by legislative action that seem politically plausible on their face—e.g., writing some sort of auto-forgiveness provision into the Medicare terms of participation or restricting/forbidding collection activity under the FDCPA.
I agree, getting rid of medical debt is great but it doesn’t fix the underlying issue: unaffordable healthcare, especially for people with disabilities and chronic illnesses.
Some provisions in the affordable care act such as preventing insurers from not covering someone based on pre-existing conditions have helped reduce medical debt. Ideally, I would like to see a universal healthcare or a medicare for all type of model so that everyone can get the coverage that they need. There is a lot of data about how expanding medicare in different states has saved lives, resulted in less emergency room visits, etc.