ARIZONA, USA — The political organization led by prominent Democrat Stacey Abrams is branching out into paying off medical debts to residents in Arizona.
Fair Fight Political Action Committee on Wednesday told The Associated Press that it's donating $1.34 million to the nonprofit RIP Medical Debt to help wipe out debt with a face value of $212 million that is owed by 108,000 people in Georgia, Arizona, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama.
The purchase will help forgive the debt of nearly 69,000 people in Georgia, more than 27,000 people in Arizona, more than 8,000 people in Louisiana, and about 2,000 people apiece in Mississippi and Alabama.
“I know firsthand how medical costs and a broken healthcare system put families further and further in debt,” Stacey Abrams, founder of Fair Fight, said in a release. "Working with RIP Medical Debt, Fair Fight is stepping in where others have refused to take action."
Fair Fight PAC senior adviser Lauren Groh-Wargo says paying off debt is another facet of the group’s advocacy for Medicaid expansion in the 12 states that haven't expanded the health insurance program. Arizona and Louisiana have expanded Medicaid.
Fair Fight says letters will be sent to those whose debts have been absolved to notify them.
Abrams founded the group after her unsuccessful 2018 run for governor in Georgia.
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