St. Luke's in Mountain Brook Buys $8.1 Million In Medical Debt Across Central Alabama

[Stonepounder]

https://www.otmj.com/st-lukes-medical-debt/

You Are Forgiven: St. Luke’s in Mountain Brook Buys $8.1 Million In Medical Debt Across Central Alabama
January 6, 2020

Over the holidays, roughly 6,500 Alabama households received a notice in the mail that their medical debts had been purchased and forgiven by the Episcopal Diocese of Alabama.

Those letters were the culmination of a fundraising campaign undertaken by Saint Luke’s Episcopal Church in Mountain Brook, which commemorated its 70th anniversary by eliminating $8.1 million in medical debts throughout the Birmingham metro area and its surrounding counties.

More than 137 million Americans struggled with medical debt in 2019, according to a CNBC report. Those costs, usually unexpected, are reportedly the top reason people take money out of their retirement accounts or file for bankruptcy.

And you don't see Evangelicals doing this. You see real Christians (and Jews and Muslims) doing this sort of thing. There is a lot more at the link about how they actually managed to get to $8.1 million - things like buying medical debt from hospitals for pennies on the dollar like debt collection agencies and so on.

Just another feel-good story about good people doing good things.

[DAMANgoldberg]

1. Mountain Brook is a very tony suburb...

Generally speaking, "old" money over the mountain burb of Birmingham. More of the mainline types of churches are located relative to Hoover "new" money if you will. For anyone familiar with where I live now, think Myers Park or SouthPark relative to Ballantyne or Lake Wylie.

disclosure: grew up 60 miles from Mountainbrook and went to college 95 miles away.

[calimary]

3. This is really wonderful!

REALLY doing “the work of the saints.”

Stuff like this restores my faith.

[NCLefty]

4. I lived in Ballantyne for a while. :p

[Demovictory9]

2. excellent!!!