Governor Gretchen Whitmer has announced the first round of medical debt forgiveness through a collaboration with the non-profit, Undue Medical Debt.

Undue Medical Debt purchases medical debt in bulk for pennies on the dollar from providers like hospitals, physician groups, and collection agencies and then forgives it. Whitmer said this first step in the state’s partnership with the group will make a real difference.

“We just erased more than $144 million of medical debt for almost 210,000 Michiganders,” Whitmer said. “For all those families, that’s money in their pockets. We know medical debt forces hundreds of thousands of Americans to go bankrupt every year.”

Under the state’s medical debt forgiveness partnership, those who qualify for medical debt relief are either four times at or below the federal poverty level or have medical debts that equal 5% or more of their annual income. Whitmer says this will give them a chance to get ahead.

“Here in Michigan, we believe that being sick or getting hurt shouldn’t mean going broke for the rest of your life, and we’re doing the work. In the past few years, we secured $4.5 million to relieve medical debt for Michiganders. Today’s announcement builds on that good work.”

Most of the debt forgiven as part of this first round is in Southeast Michigan, although there are recipients statewide. Future rounds will focus on other regions.

The state identified the recipients with the help of hospitals.