Preview. Giving is not open yet. You can walk through every step. Nothing is charged and no receipt is issued.What is still to do

How it works, line by line.

Unpaid medical bills are often sold in bulk for a small fraction of what is owed. We raise money to buy that debt, then cancel it and post the relief on our public ledger.

DonateSee the ledger

  1. You give

    Once or monthly, with a receipt for every gift. Your gift supports our work to buy and cancel medical debt.

  2. We buy medical debt in bulk

    Old unpaid medical bills are often sold in large groups, called portfolios. We buy those portfolios to cancel the debts, never to collect them.

  3. We cancel it and post the receipt

    Instead of collecting, we cancel the debts. The debt we cancelled and the people it reached go in the public ledger.

From a gift to a cancelled debt, stage by stage.

What happens between a gift and a cancelled debt, who does each part and how you can tell it is done.

Status words come from our checklist of what has to happen before our first purchase.

  1. Gifts arrive

    When
    Any time
    Who
    Donors, through our payment partner
    Done when
    the gift is confirmed and its receipt is sent.
    Status
    In progress

  2. We buy the portfolio

    When
    When a purchase is agreed
    Who
    We pay the seller
    Done when
    the debt is ours to cancel.
    Status
    Not done yet

  3. We cancel the debts

    When
    Right after the purchase
    Who
    We, and the seller stops collecting
    Done when
    nobody can collect on those debts any more.
    Status
    Not done yet

  4. People get a letter

    When
    After the debts are cancelled
    Who
    We, by mail
    Done when
    each person has been sent a letter with a code they can check on our website.
    Status
    Not done yet

  5. We post the relief

    When
    When the purchase is complete
    Who
    We, checked by a second person
    Done when
    the relief is on the ledger with its date, the debt cancelled, the people it reached and the state.
    Status
    Not done yet

Why nobody can ask us to cancel one bill

Debts are sold in bundles, so we can't buy one person's bill on request. If you owe a medical bill now, there is help you can use today.

Get help with a bill

What cancelling medical debt does, and what it doesn't

It ends the obligation to pay that debt and stops collection on it. The only randomized study so far found no average improvement in health or financial well-being (Kluender, Mahoney, Wong and Yin, November 2024).

Read the evidence

Questions about how it works.

Each answer ends with the next step.

Many old medical bills are never paid, so they are often sold in large groups of accounts. We buy medical debt in bulk and cancel it, so nobody can collect on it again.

Donate

Help fund our first purchase.

Your gift supports our work to buy and cancel medical debt, and every debt we cancel will be posted on our public ledger.

Donate