A New York woman who died of ovarian cancer managed to posthumously raise enough money to wipe out millions of dollars of other Americans’ medical debts.
It was in a message posted on social media that Casey McIntyre’s husband announced the death of his partner and what she had accomplished.
“Note to friends: if you are reading this, I am deceased. I’m so sorry, it’s bullshit and we all know it. The cause was stage four ovarian cancer,” it was published on November 14 on X.
“To celebrate my life, I arranged to buy out other people’s medical debt and destroy it. I am very fortunate to have had access to the best medical care at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer and I am very aware that so many people in our country do not have access to good care,” he said. been explained.
To succeed, the 38-year-old woman launched a fundraiser on the platform of the non-profit organization RIP Medical Debt. As of Tuesday, nearly $573,500 had already been raised.
RIP Medical Debt uses data analytics to find U.S. households that have incomes below four times the poverty level or whose medical debt is 5% or more of their annual income.
Thus, the organization buys debts in packages, which makes it possible to reduce “approximately 100 times its value in medical debts”, it is explained on its website.
“In general, a dollar of donation eliminates $100 of medical debt,” Daniel Lempert, vice president of communications for RIP Medical Debt, told the “New York Times.”
According to him, Casey McIntyre’s campaign is the first that was organized posthumously.
“As far as fundraising goes, I don’t know if we’ve ever seen anything raise as much money as Casey’s campaign did so quickly,” he said.
RIP Medical Debt has already paid off US$10.4 billion in medical debt for more than 7 million Americans.
