Cure Medical Debt

Frequent Questions

• Who qualifies for debt forgiveness ?

  RIP buys and forgives “portfolios” of medical debt from health care providers and from the secondary debt market, which allows us to forgive thousands of people’s debts at once. RIP is not yet able to handpick and forgive personal medical debt for individuals. We’re working on it.

  When we purchase a portfolio of medical debt, we abolish debt for those who:
  Earn less than 2x the federal poverty level (varies by state, family size).
  Debts are 5 percent or more of annual income.
  Facing insolvency — debts are greater than assets.

• Can I pick whose debt is forgiven?

  No, RIP is a random act of kindness for those in need.

• How much of my donation is used to abolish debt?

  Over 90% of your donation goes toward abolishing debt. The rest goes for expenses like data acquisition and mailing debt forgiveness notices in our yellow envelopes.

  No donated funds go toward staff salaries. Benefactors separately fund RIP operations.

• Is there a tax impact for those who have debt abolished?

  For those whose medical debts are forgiven, the forgiveness is a gift from a detached and disinterested third party (RIP) as an act of generosity, so forgiveness of the debt does not count as income to the debtor. We will not file a Form 1099-C with the IRS.

• Is my donation tax deductible?

  Yes. We are a 501(c)(3) charity and your donation is 100% tax deductible.

• What is the Goal of RIP Medical Debt?

  The mission of RIP Medical Debt is abolishing $1 billion dollars in personal medical debt. We estimate that raising $14.4 million in donations will allow us to purchase and forgive $1 billion in medical debt.

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