Mayor Aftab Pureval is calling the city's medical debt relief program a success.
Last year, Cincinnati City Council approved nearly $1.5 million in spending for medical debt relief and finalized a deal with the national nonprofit Undue Medical Debt to purchase local debt.
The city originally planned to forgive $134 million for 34,000 Cincinnati residents. However, on Monday, Pureval announced that after working with Undue Medical Debt and UC Health to purchase debts at a lower cost, nearly $220 million in debt was wiped away for approximately 120,000 residents who met the city's criteria.
"This Council, putting in $1.4 million in order to eliminate $219 million worth of debt, is an extraordinary return on investment," Mayor Pureval said.
Residents with an income below 400% of the federal poverty level, or those with debt exceeding 5% of their total income, were eligible for relief from the city.
The mayor says the amount of relief the city was able to provide far exceeded expectations, and the use of tax dollars to forgive the debts will have a profound impact on many in the community, who he says now have a weight lifted off their shoulders.
"Our study shows that 1 in 3 Cincinnatians have some form of medical debt, and over half of those who responded said that debt was their number one challenge when trying to make ends meet," he said.
The city's data shows that much of the medical debt relief was given to residents between the ages of 31 and 60. More than $113 million in debt was forgiven for people making $25,000 a year or less, and over $74 million was wiped clean for residents making between $26,000 and $50,000.
Pureval says he'd like to include a similar relief program in the city's next budget.
Read more:
