By Wayne County Executive Warren C. Evans

Medical debt can be more than a financial burden. For families already struggling to make ends meet, an unexpected hospital bill or unpaid medical expense can affect household stability, credit, housing and the ability to keep up with other basic needs.

That’s why I’m so proud of Wayne County’s partnership with the nonprofit Undue Medical Debt, which is producing a tangible benefit for thousands of county residents.

Through the medical debt relief initiative, Wayne County is using resources from its indigent health fund and pandemic relief dollars to help eliminate qualifying medical debt. The program has the potential to relieve as much as $700 million in medical debt and benefit an estimated 200,000 Wayne County residents, which includes Detroit.

The results so far are significant.

According to current program figures, more than $95 million in medical debt has been relieved for 102,246 Wayne County residents.

According to current program figures, more than $95 million in medical debt has been relieved for 102,246 Wayne County residents. The county has used just shy of $710,000 to achieve that result. Because Undue Medical Debt purchases qualifying medical debt portfolios for pennies on the dollar, public resources can be leveraged to address a much larger amount of debt.

The program is designed to reach residents who need the assistance most. Eligible beneficiaries must live in Wayne County. For eligible residents whose debt is acquired through the program, cancellation is automatic. Beneficiaries are notified by mail, eliminating the need for residents to navigate another complicated application process.

There is an important lesson in these numbers: public investment can have a measurable impact when resources are directed toward specific needs and partnerships are structured to stretch those dollars as far as possible.

Medical debt relief does not erase the larger challenges facing families when health care becomes unaffordable. It does, however, remove a significant financial burden for people who have already faced the stress and uncertainty that often accompany serious illness or medical treatment.

It does, however, remove a significant financial burden for people who have already faced the stress and uncertainty that often accompany serious illness or medical treatment.

For more than 100,000 Wayne County residents, that burden has now been reduced or eliminated through this initiative.

The success of the Medical Debt Relief program also demonstrates why county government can play an important role in addressing issues that directly affect household financial stability. When government resources, nonprofit expertise and cooperation from health systems come together, the result can be assistance that reaches residents in a concrete and measurable way.

The figures tell the story: more than $95 million in medical debt relieved, more than 102,000 residents benefiting, and less than $1 million in county funds used to generate that relief.

For families carrying the weight of medical bills, those are not simply numbers. They represent debt that no longer has to be paid and financial pressure that no longer has to be carried.