They began as debt collectors, trying to get people burdened by medical costs to pay up. But the conversations they had persuaded them to do something else — something better. Through listening to people explain their struggles, Craig Antico and Jerry Ashton “would understand and have better insights into the struggles people were challenged with,” said the CEO of the nonprofit they founded, RIP Medical Debt.
The Occupy Wall Street movement helped change Ashton. In 2011, activists from the group urged him to help relieve Americans of their debt, not pursue them for it. “As a bill collector collecting millions of dollars in medical-associated bills in my career, now all of a sudden I’m reformed,” Ashton said. “I’m a predatory giver.”
Since he and Antico founded the organization in 2014, it’s bought $6.7 billion of medical debt and paid it off for 3.6 million people. Buying $100 in debt costs about $1. Most buyers then try to collect the debt, making more profit the more people they can badger into paying. RIP Medical Debt does the opposite.
