A woman who was suffering from cancer has reportedly cleared $108 million of other people’s medical debt after dying.
Casey McIntyre, who was a 38 year old was ovarian cancer on November 12, 2023. Before she died, she set up a memorial fundraiser to raise money for a U.S. charity that buys and destroys people’s medical debts. The 38-year-old New Yorker had stage four ovarian cancer. And as her condition worsened, she knew she’d soon be leaving behind her husband and 18-month daughter.
However, she decided to also leave behind a legacy — one that would change the lives of Americans saddled with hospital bills they can’t afford to pay. “Casey is a very joyous person and we wanted there to be an element of joy to the ceremony,” her husband, Andrew Rose Gregory, told As It Happens guest host Peter Armstrong. “And we had this idea for, you know: What if we raise money to relieve debt?”
McIntyre died on November 12. Two days later, her husband posted a statement she had prepared ahead of time to her social media accounts, asking people to donate in her honour to RIP Medical Debt, a U.S. charity that buys up health-care debt and destroys it.
As of Wednesday, her online fundraiser had collected more than $800,000 US and counting, which the charity says is enough to wipe out $80 million US — roughly $108 million Cdn — in medical debt across the United States. “It’s pretty incredible,” Allison Sesso, CEO of RIP Medical Debt, told CBC. “She’ll be helping thousands of people.”
Debt is a commodity that can be bought and sold. A lot of debt never gets paid off so institutions sell it in bundles, at a discount, to third-party collectors. Those companies will then work to track down as much of the owed money as possible and turn a profit in the process.
