Groups like Christ for Kentucky have decided they are obligated to help reduce or eliminate medical debt, especially for residents living in poverty.
Robert Cunningham, director of the group, said unpaid medical bills are a driving factor in personal bankruptcy cases in most counties.
"In Kentucky, it's about 18%," Cunningham pointed out. "In the eastern rural Appalachia region, some estimates have it at 33% – one in three – with medical debt in collections."
Last summer, an initiative led by Kentucky Voices for Health and the group Undue Medical Debt purchased and erased more than $1.2 million of medical debt in Kentucky, affecting more than 1,200 people statewide.
A little more than half of Americans said they are able to afford the prescription drugs and quality health care they need, according to a 2024 WestHealth-Gallup poll. Cunningham noted almost everyone he knows has felt the effects of high medical bills, including his own family, when his son had an emergency surgery.
"There should be no debate about helping people who, for no fault of their own, get into a medical crisis," Cunningham contended. "It truly is life-altering or family-altering for them."
Kentucky does not set medical debt interest or wage garnishment limits and ranks at the top among states with the fewest safeguards for people with medical debt, according to a Commonwealth Fund report.