Health
Medical Debt Relief Program Erases $345M of Debt for Nearly 270,000 Illinoisans Since Launch Last Year
Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker speaks during a news conference announcing the latest round of medical debt relief at UChicago Medicine in Hyde Park on Feb. 26, 2025. (Courtesy of Office of the Governor live stream)
A statewide medical debt relief pilot program has erased more than $345 million in medical debt for nearly 270,000 Illinoisans since its launch last year, state officials said Wednesday.
“We started this program with a simple premise: In a healthy and functioning society, no one should fall into financial ruin simply because they got sick,” Gov. J.B. Pritzker said during a news conference announcing the latest round of medical debt relief.
In the third and latest round of relief, the program erased more than $220 million in medical debt for approximately 170,000 individuals in the state. Recipients should receive letters in the mail within two weeks, according to Elizabeth Whitehorn, director of the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services, which administers the program.
The Illinois Medical Debt Relief Pilot Program, modeled after a Cook County medical debt relief program, aims to erase $1 billion in medical debt for residents statewide.
The state partners with the national nonprofit Undue Medical Debt to implement the program. The nonprofit uses state funds to buy medical debt in bulk from health systems and collection agencies for a fraction of face value.
After the debt is acquired, it is then erased at no cost to individuals.
Illinois has spent about $2 million on the program to relieve a total of $345 million in debt for residents, according to a news release.
Insurance is not always enough to protect people from experiencing medical debt, according to Undue Medical Debt Vice President of Government Initiatives Courtney Story.
“It is important to remember that medical debt is not a debt of choice; it is a debt of necessity,” Story said. “No one asks to get sick or injured. Medical debt forces people to delay care and disproportionately impacts already vulnerable communities.”
Illinois residents are eligible for debt relief if their household income is at or below 400% of the federal poverty level, or if their medical debt equals 5% or more of their household income. There is no application process for the program, rather, Undue Medical Debt analyzes hospital debt portfolios to identify qualifying accounts.
Contact Eunice Alpasan: @eunicealpasan | 773-509-5362 | [email protected]
