More than 97,000 Connecticut residents will receive letters this week informing them that some or all of their medical debt has been erased, according to a Tuesday press release from the governor’s office.
This marks the fourth round of a state program that aims to cancel a total of roughly $650 million in medical debt for state residents by the end of this year. The initiative has erased a total of $513 million in medical debt for more than 250,000 residents since its launch in 2024.
“Medical debt is a burden carried by families in every Connecticut community, but it disproportionately affects working-class families,” Gov. Ned Lamont said in a statement in the press release. He also thanked the Connecticut hospitals and providers that have participated in the program.
Residents qualify for debt cancellation if they earn 400% or less of the federal poverty level annually — about $132,000 or less for a family of four — or if their medical debt makes up 5% or more of their income. But not everyone in the state who meets those thresholds automatically qualifies; The hospital or doctor where they incurred the debt must also opt in to participating in the program.
A source familiar with the program said Hartford HealthCare, the health system with the most hospitals in Connecticut, hasn’t participated in any of the four rounds of debt cancellation. HHC did not respond to a request for comment.
Yale New Haven Health also did not immediately return a request for comment about their participation in time for publication.
The state is partnering on the initiative with Undue Medical Debt, a nonprofit that negotiates with hospitals and debt purchasers to buy debt at a steep discount — the organization’s website claims that every $1 donated cancels $100 in medical debt. The nonprofit has worked with state and local governments in New Jersey, Arizona, Rhode Island, New York City and elsewhere.
Lamont originally proposed a statewide medical debt measure in 2023 and negotiated with the legislature to earmark $6.5 million for it with funding from the COVID-era American Rescue Plan Act, or ARPA. The state then signed a contract to launch the program with Undue Medical Debt in May 2024.
People in worse health and those living with a disability, as well as Black Americans, are more likely to report medical debt, according to KFF Health.
A year-long investigation into medical debt lawsuits by the Connecticut Mirror and KFF Health News found that many hospital systems have stopped suing their patients over unpaid bills. Doctors’ practices and other non-hospital providers now dominate healthcare collections in Connecticut.
In conversations with nearly 40 patients who had been sued over unpaid bills, many said they didn’t understand how they incurred such large bills while covered by health insurance, or how they didn’t qualify for financial assistance given their modest incomes.
