Undue Medical Debt

Everyone loves a heist. Especially Obee and Dinosaur Art Thief.

 

They don’t heist for glory or wealth. They heist to help strangers in need. Because they don’t just heist. They debt heist.

 

We're also going to help strangers in need. We're going to work with Obee and Dinosaur Art Thief to heist that debt.

 

THE DEBT HEIST

UPDATE/THANKS/BYE: Well, this is very cool. The fundraiser I flung online in a fit of helpless fury last week has now doubled-up its original goal. The $20k you all put into it will result in something like $2 million in medical debt relief for complete strangers, courtesy of RIP Medical Debt, a good charity. That's a lot to wrap your brain around. I’ve sent out so, so many terrible MS Paint drawings to so, so many very cool and generous people. The most popular drawing request, by FAR, was Dinosaur Art Thief. I get that. 

I’m turning off donations just because “doubling our goal” feels like as good a time as any to do that. If you’re seeing this just now and are bummed you missed out, I assure you, there are plenty of other places that will gladly accept your charitable dollars. Find some! Give them stuff! Thanks again to everyone who donated. We did a good thing in a weird time. That’s definitely not nothing. You guys are the best. 

BG

*****

Welcome to the future. It’s a little scary. There’s a lot going on. Too much, one might say, particularly if one takes into account… [gestures toward every current event]. It is understandable if you -- especially right now -- have a lot of nervous energy ping-ponging around in your body. A lot of us do. But the nice thing about that kind of energy is that you can also try to harness it and shoot it off into a more positive direction. Let’s do that. Let’s shoot some energy at some cool, positive stuff. 

THE PLAN

We are going to raise money to help a bunch of complete strangers wipe out their medical debt. Poof, gone. We’re going to do this by donating money to RIP Medical Debt, a non-profit that buys up medical debt in bulk for pennies on the dollar and then throws it straight into a fire. Figuratively, I mean. They probably just push a button on their keyboards. Although if they’re looking to raise a little more money, I would pay up to $20 to attend a bonfire where they set a huge pile of collection notices ablaze and then everyone gets weird in the crowd like it’s Burning Man or something. 

The information about RIP Medical Debt is here. Here’s a link to a segment about the group (and medical debt, in general) from Last Week Tonight. Those are the highlights but feel free to do your own research. 

WHY MEDICAL DEBT?

Two reasons, one general and one personal:

— Generally, because medical debt stinks and will remain a huge problem until large portions of the healthcare industry in this country are overhauled. While going online and shouting “THINGS SHOULD BE BETTER” feels nice in the moment, it doesn’t actually do much. This does. It’s a proactive little thing we can do with minimal effort while we work on the larger issues. Don’t sit around cursing the darkness, people. Light a candle. Or a torch. Torches are probably better. They definitely look cooler.

— Personally, because I messed up my spinal cord a while ago and am pretty much paralyzed or limited in some way from the shoulders down. I’m doing fine, all things considered. I have a job and health insurance. And I — thankfully — have no significant medical debt right now. This isn’t about me, really. I’m only even bringing it up because a) I am hyper-aware that having a serious health issue can get expensive fast, and b) I know that if I mention the wheelchair thing it might guilt some of you into donating, which I can live with. There are a bunch of people out there struggling. It’s scary and sad. We’re basically kicking people out of society for having the audacity to get sick one time. I hate it. 

THE GOAL

The goal is $10,000 in the next week or two. I picked this number because every dollar donated to RIP Medical Debt turns into about $100 of debt relief and “wiping out one million dollars in medical debt” sounds awesome. I mean, say it out loud real quick: "ONE MILLION DOLLARS." Yup, confirmed, awesome. 

Any amount you can spare is great ($5, $10, anything), but even if you’re not in a position to contribute financially, you can still pitch in. Tell a friend, blast it on social media, shout it out your kitchen window. Everything helps. And if you’re in a position to donate but are still on the fence about it, well...

THE JUICE

If “because it is a good thing to do” and “to help Brian reach the goal he set so he doesn’t spin off the planet in a self-induced competitive rage spiral” aren’t enough to get you to open up your wallet, consider this: For a donation of $25, I will send you a terrible MS Paint drawing I made, along the lines of the masterpiece at the top of the page. Your options include:

Cow on the Moon

Skateboarding Turtle

Dinosaur Art Thief

Bad Magician

Tom Cruise at a Birthday Party

Just email a screenshot of your confirmation to LetsDoAGoodThing at Gmail dot com, include the title of the drawing you want, and I’ll reply with the file attached. You can get two for a $50 donation or three for $75. If you donate $100, guess what, you can have all five. Donate $1,000 and I’ll take requests. Donate $10,000 and maybe I’ll come and paint your house. It will take forever and I’ll do a bad job (see above, the part about the spinal cord injury), but the offer stands. Whatever it takes.

IN CONCLUSION

DO IT.

COME ON.

DO A COOL AND GOOD THING.

HECK DEBT! DONATE WHAT YOU CAN TO HELP ERASE MEDICAL DEBT! $25 DONATION COULD ERASE AS MUCH AS $5,000 IN MEDICAL DEBT!!

The united doggos of the (extremely unofficial caucus) DSA Dog Caucus are sick of humans letting DEBT and MONEY determine who gets health care. It does not make sense.

Everyone deserves healthcare.

RIP Medical Debt  is on a mission to abolish 1 BILLION dollars in medical debt, and they're almost halfway there.

A recent New York Times story  talked about how RIP Medical Debt used one couple's donation of $12,500 to purchase $1,500,000 in medical debt and erase it.

How? Because corporations don't actually care if you pay your bills in full... The debt collectors calling humans collect on bills *in full* bought your debt for, in this case 0.5% of the money people were being made to feel afraid, threatened, and struggling to pay off.

Somewhere along the line a company recognized people couldn't pay, and then decided they didn't need the money. Instead of calling the people who couldn't afford to pay for the healthcare they needed, they sell the debt to someone else for 0.5% of it's value who will then call the people who couldn't afford to pay for the healthcare they needed and threaten them and sue them and call them incessantly, until they either pay, give up, or resell that debt to another debt collector.

That's how it usually works. Instead, RIP Medical Debt buys medical debt, erases it, and lets people know that they did it and why.

LET'S ERASE SOME MEDICAL DEBT WITH A BORKING JUBILEE!!

If healthcare companies sell the debt we're going to erase for 0.5% of its worth:

$5 donation could erase $1,000 in medical debt
$10 donation could erase $2,000 in medical debt
$25 donation could erase $5,000 in medical debt
$50 donation could erase $10,000 in medical debt
$100 donation could erase $20,000 in medical debt

Since RIP Medical Debt is registered with GoFundMe, all donations will go directly to RIP Medical Debt and will never touch our paws.

Heidi is so excited to erase some debt!!!

Oh and if you send us proof of your donation to the doggos facebook or twitter , you'll get a pic of one of the doggos thanking you!