Photo: Paster John Jackman holds a debt-burning ceremony | Trinity Moravian Church
More than 3,000 residents of North Carolina's Davidson County are free from medical debt after the Trinity Moravian Church in Winston-Salem purchased, and forgave, almost $3 million of their medical bills. It is part of an ongoing Debt Jubilee Project that partners with RIP Medical Debt to purchase and forgive medical debts in the area. Last year, they purchased $1.65 million worth of debt for 1,356 people in Forsyth and Davidson counties. "The medical system is so broken," says Rev. John Jackman, pastor of Trinity Moravian Church. "Most of these families were making a go of it until someone has to go into the hospital for a few days or to the doctor for a serious (medical condition)." Outstanding medical bills often end up being sold to a third-party collection agency for pennies on the dollar, giving it the legal right to collect the full amount of the debt or, as in the Debt Jubilee Project, forgive the debt.
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