Orange County will spend $4.5 million to wipe medical debt for thousands in a move that county leaders believe to be a first in Florida.
County commissioners voted 5-2 Tuesday to partner with a national nonprofit that intends to buy the debt for pennies on the dollar and then forgive those who owe it.
The aid will go to residents whose medical debt constitutes five percent or more of their annual household income or who are living in households earning a salary four times below the federal poverty line. In the U.S. that line is $31,200 for a family of four.
An estimated 154,000 people in Orange County meet those criteria, officials said.
“Look at more low-income, for instance, or marginalized people that might not even know that they have this insane amount of debt because they don’t have cell phones,” said Matthew Grocholske, who urged commissioners Tuesday to approve the initiative. “At 20 years old, I’m $39,000 in debt from student loan payments, renting history and medical debt as well.”
For nearly a year, the county has considered the debt reduction plan, which will be paid for by leftover pandemic relief funds. In July, commissioners deferred the final vote on the plan to Tuesday’s meeting while seeking more information about the nonprofit involved, Undue Medical Debt, and who exactly would benefit from the partnership.
“I do want to be real about what this does and doesn’t do,” said Undue’s Chief Executive Officer, Allison Sesso. “It is not the total solution to people’s creditworthiness.”
Sesso said Undue estimates they can rid county residents of $424 million in medical debt that originates with either AdventHealth or Orlando Health health systems.
In February, when the county first voted to move ahead with the plan, representatives of AdventHealth and Orlando Health said in emails to the Orlando Sentinel they support an initiative to relieve medical debt for county residents, without committing to specifics.
Sesso said people who qualify won’t need to — and actually can’t — apply directly for the assistance that will be funded through the remainder of the county’s American Rescue Plan Act funds.
Instead, Undue will negotiate with the debt-holders, then write to those who qualify for the aid and list which debts have been cleared.
Undue Medical Debt was founded in 2014 and has since partnered with Cook County (Chicago) Illinois, Lucas County (Toledo) Ohio, New Orleans, Arizona, New Jersey and Connecticut to alleviate what it says was $13 billion in total medical debt.
Sesso said Undue has not yet identified how many county residents are in medical debt and how much money they owe, though she pledged to secure funding herself if the $424 million isn’t enough to cover the debt from all qualified residents.
“If there’s not enough funds, I will figure out a way to either privately fundraise or come to you and talk to you about opportunities,” she said. “It might take longer, but this is not a lottery. We will not pick and choose. Anybody that’s in those files at those hospitals that qualifies is going to have their debt relieved.”
Mayor Jerry Demings voted against the plan because Sesso lacked a definitive list of whom the money would help.
“I feel that the persons who are mostly advocates are advocates because they really believe that somehow they would directly benefit,” Demings said. “Today, all that I’m hearing, we couldn’t guarantee them, an individual, or a massive group of individuals, that you’re directly going to benefit. It is a bit of an unknown for individuals in our community — whether they will see any improvement in their overall debt or not.”
He instead asked commissioners whether the leftover funding would be better used building homeless shelters throughout the county, which Commissioner Christine Moore said she preferred.
“I was starting out not for medical debt and now you throw in the homelessness issue,” she said. “I have to say I would be for putting the money to the homelessness problem.”
But federal law requires municipalities to use pandemic relief funding by the end of this year and to spend the money by Dec. 31, 2026.
The partnership with Undue will extend until September 2026.
Jenna Ferreira, a pharmacist at AdventHealth who spoke in support of the partnership, said the initiative is a move in the right direction.
“What people don’t understand is there’s this false rumor that medical debt doesn’t affect your financial life. It definitely does, and it can bar you from finding housing,” Ferreira said. “It truly is such a domino effect that it’s more than just ‘Can I pay my medical bill?’”
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