A Maryland church has wiped out nearly $2 million in medical debt impacting about 900 individuals and families across 14 counties in the Old Line state thanks to a generous donation. Letters were sent out in March to many across the state of Maryland telling them that their medical debts have been eliminated — some as large as $100,000 and some as small as $200.
Around Christmas time, attendees of Revolution Annapolis, a medium-sized nondenominational church based in the state’s capital, began fundraising to help brothers and sisters in their local area escape from the clutches of medical debt.
According to lead Pastor Kenny Camacho, they were inspired by a John Oliver piece on HBO and the success that a Texas church had last year when it raised enough funds to erase medical debt for over 4,000 families. Camacho stressed that the gift of medical forgiveness comes with no strings attached. He doesn’t want recipients to feel that they owe anything.
“That is a core part of our belief system and our structure. We think this is a practical and tangible way that we can help people — regardless of whether they are part of a church or not — experience forgiveness that impacts their lives in a meaningful way,” he explained. “We hope that is kind of the taste of the larger message that we would like to communicate to people about what it means to have debt forgiven.”
Camacho explained that churches should strive to be the “good news” within their local communities and hopes to see churches in other areas raise funds to eliminate medical debt in their areas.
“The cities that have churches in them should be different because Christians are in those cities,” Camacho contended. “So we want Annapolis and Maryland to look different because we are here. We think this is one of the ways that we can do that.”
Revolution Church, a mobile church of about 170 members who meet in an elementary school, now aims to build a coalition of local churches and nonprofits that work together to tackle the “debt ladder” and purchase and forgive debt earlier in the collections process.