LA County to Allocate $5 Million to Erase Medical Debt for Thousands of Residents

The county will partner with a nonprofit that uses donated money to buy debt for cents on the dollar.

A registered nurse cares for a patient on a stretcher in a hallway of the overloaded Emergency Room at Providence St. Mary Medical Center amid the COVID-19 pandemic in Apple Valley, Calif., on Jan. 5, 2021. Mario Tama/Getty Images

The most populous county in the United States, with nearly 10 million people, is now looking to buy out the medical debt for around 150,000 of its most struggling residents.

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted June 25 to set aside $5 million to partner with a national nonprofit called Undue Medical Debt to buy and erase hundreds of millions of dollars of debt. The program is expected to roll out in stages later this year.