In loss of life, one most cancers affected person helps to erase hundreds of thousands in medical debt

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A New York Metropolis lady who died Sunday from most cancers has raised sufficient cash to erase hundreds of thousands of {dollars} in medical debt with a posthumous plea for assist.

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Casey McIntyre informed followers in a social media message posted by her husband that she had organized to purchase the medical debt of others as a manner of celebrating her life.

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McIntyre wrote on X, previously referred to as Twitter, that “for those who’re studying this I’ve handed away.”

“I beloved every one in all you with my complete coronary heart and I promise you, I knew how deeply I used to be beloved,” the 38-year-old wrote. The posts included a hyperlink to a fundraising marketing campaign began by the nonprofit RIP Medical Debt.

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McIntyre’s husband, Andrew Rose Gregory, posted the messages on Tuesday, and the marketing campaign rapidly blew previous its $20,000 objective. It had raised about $140,000 by Friday afternoon, or sufficient to purchase round $14 million in medical debt.

Gregory mentioned his spouse had good medical insurance and obtained nice care at Memorial Sloan Kettering Most cancers Middle. Even so, the couple noticed some “terrifying” fees on paperwork for her care, he mentioned.

“What resonated for me and Casey is, you realize, there’s good most cancers therapy on the market that folks can’t afford,” he mentioned. “As a substitute of dreaming of a treatment for most cancers, what if we may simply assist people who find themselves being crushed by medical debt?”

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Sufferers within the U.S. healthcare system can rapidly rack up large payments that push them into debt even when they’ve insurance coverage. That is very true for individuals who wind up hospitalized or want common care or prescriptions for continual well being issues.

A 2022 evaluation of presidency information from the nonprofit KFF estimates that almost 1 in 10 U.S. adults owe at the very least $250 in medical debt. That complete of roughly 23 million individuals consists of 11 million who owe greater than $2,000.

RIP Medical Debt erases debt bought from hospitals, different well being care suppliers and the secondary debt market. It buys hundreds of thousands of {dollars} of debt in bundles for what it says is a fraction of the unique worth.

The nonprofit says each greenback donated buys about $100 in debt, and it goals to assist individuals with decrease incomes. Spokesman Daniel Lempert mentioned the group has by no means had a marketing campaign the place somebody plans for it to start out after their loss of life.

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McIntyre, who was a e book writer, began therapy for ovarian most cancers in 2019. She spent about three months within the hospital over the previous yr, her husband mentioned.

The Brooklyn couple began planning for her memorial and the debt-buying marketing campaign after she virtually died in Might. They have been impressed by a video they noticed of North Carolina churchgoers burning about $3 million in medical debt.

McIntyre spent the final 5 months in residence hospice care, giving her what Gregory calls a “bonus summer time.” She went on seashore journeys and hung out with their household, together with the couple’s 18-month-old daughter, Grace.

“Casey was very, very sick on the finish of her life, and she or he couldn’t end the whole lot she needed to complete,” Gregory mentioned. “However I knew she needed to do that memorial and debt jubilee. So I set that up and … did it the best way I believed she would have needed.”

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