HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, Fla. — When Jen Mattingly opened a letter in the mail, she initially feared it was yet another medical bill.
Instead, the letter told her she no longer owed $2,953.06 in medical debt.
“I opened the letter and I cried,” Mattingly told Tampa Bay 28 I-Team Reporter Kylie McGivern.
The letter came from nonprofit Undue Medical Debt, which uses donations to purchase medical debt at a discount and relieve it for people experiencing financial hardship. The organization says every $1 donated relieves an average of $100 in medical debt.
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"It says, 'Dear Jen, we're writing to share the good news. You no longer owe the medical debts listed on the right of this letter. Using a donation provided by national partners, Undue Medical Debt, a national 501(c)(3) nonprofit, bought and canceled this debt. It's a no-strings-attached gift. You no longer have any obligation to pay this debt to anyone at any future time, and no income taxes are owed.' It's a great letter."
Mattingly said her medical bills began piling up after she experienced serious health problems.
“My life was still kind of shaken by the pandemic. I went through a health decline during that time, and it was a rough time,” Mattingly said. “I had thousands of bills from every doctor I went to, and I couldn't tell you why they were denying my claims.”
She said repeated hospital visits ultimately led doctors to discover blood clots in her lungs and a blood-clotting disease.
“It was tens of thousands of dollars that I was seeing in bills,” she said. “Really, I was just overwhelmed.”
Medical debt is the No. 1 cause of bankruptcy in America. Mattingly says she considered it.
"I work in social services that don't have the means to pay people that type of money," she said.
Mattingly said Undue Medical Debt eliminated about $3,000 she owed, which she estimated represented at least two emergency room visits.
“It does feel like a miracle,” she said.
Her experience comes as medical debt continues to affect Americans, even when they have health insurance.
A September report from the Commonwealth Fund found one in three working-age adults with private health insurance is paying off medical debt over time.
Undue Medical Debt President and CEO Allison Sesso told Tampa Bay 28 the nonprofit seeks not only to eliminate debt, but also to draw attention to broader problems within the health care system.
“This is not a problem that's your fault,” Sesso said. “This is a systems problem.”
The nonprofit says its model uses donations to purchase large bundles of medical debt at steep discounts.
For Mattingly, the relief meant one fewer financial burden as she dealt with her health.
“I feel great today. I feel happy, like I can talk about it,” she said. “I'm not ashamed to talk about it because it's something that most people, I think, are experiencing in the economy, and I'm just an average person. And if my story can help another person, then I want them to hear it.”
Undue Medical Debt does not take individual requests for debt relief. Its website does, however, provide medical-debt resources and tips for people seeking help.
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Kylie McGivern works tirelessly to get results for the people of Tampa Bay. Her reporting has exposed flaws in Florida’s corrections system and unemployment process. Reach out to Kylie and our I-Team if you need help holding state leaders accountable.
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