The Coastal Credit Union Foundation announced that a grant to RIP Medical Debt has helped erase nearly $2.2 million in medical debt owed by central North Carolinians. RIP Medical Debt’s purpose is to reduce the burdens of low-income individuals with limited capacity to pay their medical bills. They use donations to buy bundled debt at a steep discount and then forgive it. The organization pinpoints relief to households earning less than four times the federal poverty level or whose debts are 5% or more of their annual income.

With the foundation’s grant of $17,000 made in May 2023, RIP Medical Debt was able to buy and forgive $2,177,630.87 of debt owed by 1,172 people.  The program reached people in 15 of the counties that Coastal Credit Union serves.