{"id":352115,"date":"2025-12-16T13:22:12","date_gmt":"2025-12-16T13:22:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/352115\/"},"modified":"2025-12-16T13:22:12","modified_gmt":"2025-12-16T13:22:12","slug":"lamont-announces-40000-more-ct-residents-to-have-medical-debt-erased","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/352115\/","title":{"rendered":"Lamont announces 40,000 more CT residents to have medical debt erased"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Gov. Ned Lamont said Monday that nearly 40,000 Connecticut residents will receive letters in the mail this week informing them that some or all of their medical debt has been erased.<\/p>\n<p>According to a statement, it is under an initiative the Lamont administration launched last year in partnership with the national nonprofit organization <a href=\"https:\/\/unduemedicaldebt.org\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Undue Medical Debt<\/a> to give relief to those who are having difficulties paying medical bills.<\/p>\n<p>This third round of the initiative is eliminating more than $63 million in medical debt, according to a statement. In total, \u201cnearly 160,000 Connecticut residents who\u2019ve been struggling with bills have had $198 million in medical debt eliminated since the initiative began in December 2024.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMedical debt can delay healing due to stress and anxiety about how to pay these bills,\u201d Lamont said. \u201cWith this latest round of letters being sent out to Connecticut residents, we will have eliminated $198 million in medical debt over the last year. This makes a real difference in the lives of our families, reducing fear and concerns. My administration continues to work with other medical providers to help additional families, and I urge all of them to step up and be part of the solution to address the cost of healthcare in Connecticut.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Under the initiative, \u201cUndue Medical Debt leverages investments from the state to negotiate with hospitals and other providers on the elimination of large, bundled portfolios of qualifying medical debt owed by Connecticut patients. Those who qualify must have income at or below four times (400%) the federal poverty level or have medical debt that is 5% or more of their income. (The current federal poverty level is an annual income at or below $32,150 for a family of four.) Since these medical debts are acquired in bulk and belong to those least able to pay, they cost a fraction of their face value, often pennies on the dollar,\u201d according to a statement.<\/p>\n<p>Connecticut residents who have been \u201cidentified for debt relief will receive an Undue Medical Debt branded envelope containing a letter from Undue Medical Debt in the mail over the next several days,\u201d according to a statement. (To view a sample of what this letter looks like, click <a href=\"https:\/\/portal.ct.gov\/-\/media\/office-of-the-governor\/news\/2025\/20251211-undue-medical-debt-sample-letter.pdf\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>.) \u201cBecause this debt erasure occurs through the purchase of large, qualifying bundled portfolios of debt from participating partners like hospitals and collection agencies, there is no application process for this relief and it cannot be requested.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m grateful to Governor Lamont and Connecticut for their continued leadership in providing medical debt relief to residents across the state,\u201d Allison Sesso, CEO and president of Undue Medical Debt, said. \u201cThis third round builds on tremendous progress \u2014 nearly 160,000 people helped and $198 million in debts of necessity erased. Medical debt creates both financial strain and emotional burdens that prevent families from seeking the care they need. We\u2019re proud to partner with Connecticut\u2019s community-minded providers who recognize that removing these unpayable debts helps their patients and communities thrive, and we look forward to bringing relief to even more families in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The first round of the initiative in December 2024 erased approximately $30 million in medical debt for approximately 23,000 people; and the second round in May 2025 erased more than $100 million in medical debt for 100,000 people.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLamont intends to continue partnering with Undue Medical Debt to enact further rounds of medical debt cancellation,\u201d according to a statement. The \u201cgovernor and the Connecticut General Assembly enacted legislation that makes $6.5 million in ARPA funding available for this initiative.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gov. Ned Lamont said Monday that nearly 40,000 Connecticut residents will receive letters in the mail this week&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":352116,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[9073,20242,49683,15861,175283,24800,15862,97,252,253,1493,130034,983,168221,955,45062,57523,16674,13109],"class_list":["post-352115","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health-care","tag-bills","tag-connecticut-news","tag-ct","tag-ct-news","tag-erased","tag-governor","tag-hartford-courant","tag-health","tag-health-care","tag-healthcare","tag-hospital","tag-lamont","tag-local-news","tag-max-image-preview","tag-medical","tag-medical-bills","tag-medical-debt","tag-release","tag-state"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352115","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=352115"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352115\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/352116"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=352115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=352115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=352115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}