In December, Spirit and Truth Church in Atlanta, Georgia, made a donation that cleared $1.5 million of medical debt for more than 1,000 people in the Atlanta area.
The church made the donation through an organization called Undue Medical Debt, formerly known as RIP Medical Debt. Founded in 2014 by three former debt collection executives, Undue Medical Debt has paid off over $25 billion in medical debt for nearly 15 million families in the United States.
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Undue recognizes that paying off medical debts for individuals and families is not going to permanently solve the medical debt problem. Marisa Clemente, Undue’s vice-president of philanthropy, said there is currently $220 billion in medical debt impacting more than 100 million people in the United States.
And they expect the problem to get worse with some of the changes to Medicaid and other health care programs coming.
To make matters worse, many Americans say they don’t even have $500 saved in case of a medical emergency, Clemente said.
But just because they can’t solve the medical debt system, Undue is committed to alleviating the burden medical debt can have on families — and churches and other faith-based ministries are some of Undue’s strongest and longest supporters.
$200 million in medical debt erased
In Fiscal Year 2025, at least 300 churches partnered with Undue to donate more than $2 million, according to Clemente. Those gifts erased more than $200 million in medical debt. And since its inception, Clemente said the group has worked with more than 1,000 faith-based partners.
Spirit and Truth Church says it chose to give to Undue because of its desire to “fulfill Matthew 25 and be the hands and feet of Jesus. Nothing more; nothing less.” The money came from their general living fund collected throughout the year.
“With medical debt being the leading cause of bankruptcy in the U.S., we encourage more churches to follow this path as it is a way to make millions of dollars in impact without having to actually have millions of dollars to spend,” a spokesperson for Spirit and Truth Church told MinistryWatch.
EDITOR’S NOTE — This story was written by Kim Roberts and originally published by MinistryWatch. It is reprinted with permission.
