Cook County and the state of Illinois erased upwards of $1.5 billion in medical debt for over 770,000 Cook County residents through the Illinois Medical Debt Relief Program, leaving many county residents feeling relieved and thankful.
“The basic philosophy, the president’s philosophy, is that it’s not anybody’s fault that they’re in medical debt,” said Cara Yi, the deputy director of Communications and Public Affairs for the Cook County office of the president. “Healthcare is way too expensive in the United States, people don’t have access to healthcare.”
Undue Medical Debt, a national nonprofit that pays off medical debt for pennies on the dollar, partnered with the state of Illinois and Cook County to purchase and forgive residents’ outstanding medical debt.
The Cook County Medical Debt Relief Initiative started in 2022 by Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle. The program was then expanded from the county level to Illinois at large in July 2024 when Gov. JB Pritzker signed the medical debt forgiveness bill into law, creating the Medical Debt Relief Pilot Program.
The county received $1 billion as part of the American Rescue Plan Act to aid in COVID-19 relief efforts, including building programs to foster health and wellness. Cook County was the first local government in the U.S. to use funding from the federal act to relieve medical debt. Cook County’s initiative used $7 million from those funds to eliminate $820 million in medical debt for residents.
Cook County doesn’t face this issue alone. According to a study published in the National Library of Medicine, 26% of households in the U.S. experienced medical debt in 2024.
“One of the leading causes of bankruptcy is people have medical debts, that remains to be the case. It’s been the case now for decades,” said Robert Lawless, co-director of the University of Illinois program on Law, Behavior and Social Science.
The debt relief applies to Illinois and Cook County patients with a household income at or below 400% of the federal poverty level or with medical debt that equals 5% or more of household income. Qualification for the program does not include insurance status.
Many of the patients who experience debt relief are insured in some way, said Courtney Story, vice president of government initiatives at Undue Medical Debt.
“We know that affordability is such a problem for folks across America right now and medical debt just compounds that issue,” Story said.
In a March 3 Cook County news release, a resident said they were “extremely grateful” for the debt relief, noting that their daughter’s $3,500 ER bill was “a weight carried every day.”
Illinois patients do not need to apply for the program and are told via a mailed letter from Undue Medical Debt that their debts have been permanently relieved.
Over 25 local and state governments have established medical debt relief programs, following Cook County’s lead.
“Medical debt is such an important issue,” Story said. “Medical debt accumulates not by choice, but out of necessity. Nobody chooses to get sick.”
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