ILLINOIS, USA — Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker has asked for $10 million in the 2025 fiscal year budget that he said would relieve nearly $1 billion in medical debt for Illinoisans.
In a press conference Monday morning, Pritzker provided more details on a plan he first laid out in his budget address in February. As part of the plan, Illinois would partner with the nonprofit Undue Medical Debt to purchase the medical debt of residents for pennies on the dollar.
Pritzker said the plan has already worked in Cook County, where more than $300 million in medical debt has been eliminated since 2022.
Undue Medical Debt says it "leverages donations to buy large, bundled medical debts at steep discounts."
"On average one dollar donated erases $100 of medical debt," the nonprofit's website said.
Pritzker said the proposed allotment in the 2025 budget would allow the state to forgive nearly $1 billion in debt for 340,000 people. And Pritzker said the process would continue in subsequent years.
"In the coming years, I'm proposing we eliminate medical debt for more than 1 million Illinoisans," he said.
The proposed funding has not yet been approved and it is unclear when the program would begin.
On Monday, Pritzker announced that Loyola Medicine is forgiving more than $112 million in medical debt for past and current patients.
"This act of generosity will help more than 60,000 Illinoisans," Pritzker said.
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