End Medical Debt: Curing America’s $1 Trillion Unpayable Healthcare Debt - Softcover

Ashton, Jerry; Goff, Robert; Antico, Craig

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0989224120 ISBN 13: 9780989224123

Publisher: Hoku House, 2018

Synopsis

In our urgent public debates about our broken healthcare system, we have overlooked the devastating personal and social impact of America’s medical debt crisis. Millions of Americans face $1 trillion in unpayable medical debt!

The three authors of End Medical Debt in 2014 began RIP Medical Debt, a tax-exempt charity that locates, buys and forgives medical debt. RIP first came to America's attention in 2016 when HBO's "Last Week Tonight with John Oliver" used the charity to abolish $15 million in medical debt. In response to public support since then, by the end of 1018, RIP had abolished a half billion dollars in medical debt for 250,000 Americans in communities across the country.

From their distinct viewpoints as debt collections and healthcare administration insiders, the three authors take a realistic look at our healthcare system, revealing how and why we got into this mess of skyrocketing costs, shrinking insurance coverage, rising deductibles, and mounting medical debt. They view debt forgiveness as a necessary interim solution until we agree on a better financial structure for our unhealthy healthcare system.

End Medical Debt delves into the most popular proposed solutions -- repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act, insurance reform, drug price controls, adding a Medicare Option to the ACA fo9r those over age 50 or 55, and Medicare-for-All (single-payer universal healthcare). The book concludes with the call for an American Medical Debt Commission that reports to Congress annually about the national medical debt crisis.

The book further presents practical tips for those burdened by personal medical debt.

The authors are industry insiders:
Jerry Ashton -- 40 years in the credit and collections industry.
Robert Goff -- 40 years in healthcare administration management.
Craig Antico -- 30 years in collections, debt buying and consulting.

Robert Goff and Jerry Ashton are the co-authors of The Patient, The Doctor and The Bill Collector: A Medical Debt Survival Guide, published in 2016 by Hoku House.

The authors are donating 100 percent of their royalties to forgiving medical debt.

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Praise for the book::

“I went into the hospital overnight, and the bill was $25,000. It’s time to lift the yoke off the necks of the most vulnerable and defenseless members of society — precisely what End Medical Debt does.”
-- Alan Grayson, Former U.S. Congressman

“End Medical Debt demonstrates what was always the solution: People helping people, voluntarily and without coercion. Humanity at its best.”
-- Ernest Hancock, Publisher, FreedomsPhoenix

“End Medical Debt explains why only Americans risk the probability that medical treatment will be financially inaccessible or that a family will be made destitute from a serious injury or disease.”
-- Nancy A. Niparko, M.D., Children’s Hospital Los Angeles

"Jerry Ashton, Robert Goff and Craig Antico are putting lifetimes of experience to work in End Medical Debt to spread the word that medical debt is a personal and national crisis. They are offering answers that are gaining national attention."
-- Kevin A. Cahill, New York State Assembly; Chair, Assembly Committee on Insurance Health

"End Medical Debt is exactly what we need to jumpstart the national discussion about our dysfunctional for-profit health care system, and what to do about it, so patients like me don’t have to experience the financial and personal hardships caused by medical debt. We are a forgotten, disposable, invisible universe of people. There are millions of us. This book explains with passion and honesty the nightmare of medical debt."
-- Joel R. Segal, Former senior legislative assistant, U.S. Congress. Co-author, HR 676: "Medicare For All”

About this title

About the Author

Jerry Ashton - Jerry has more than 40 years' experience in the credit and collections industry. In 1995, dissatisfied with the way he saw debtors treated, he launched CFO Advisors in New York. His debtor-centric teams in several states annually serviced a half-billion in receivables. Inspired by Occupy Wall Street's Rolling Jubilee debt forgiveness campaign, he joined with Craig Antico, a past business partner, to co-found RIP Medical Debt. Jerry is the Executive VP.

Robert Goff - Retired from 40 years in the healthcare industry, Robert E. Goff is a consulting expert in care delivery, organization and financing. His leadership roles include hospital administrator, regulator, managed care executive, association executive, educator, and entrepreneur. He developed one of the first for-profit HMOs in NY State. He was head of the University Physicians Network in NY. Robert became RIP's founding board member.

Craig Antico - A financial industry leader in collections, debt buying, outscouring, and consulting, Craig's 30-year career features work with IBM, Johnson & Johnson, collection agencies, and medical distributors. An expert in data anaytics, he cofounded the distressed debt exchange, eDebt. He joined Jerry Ashton at CFO Advisors. Today Craig is the co-founder, Chair and CEO of RIP Medical Debt.

Review

End Medical Debt confronts an important, sad truth: No one asks to be sick. It’s hard enough being poor; it’s hard enough being sick. But being poor and sick becomes a death sentence for some, a life sentence to indentured servitude for others. The bills are almost beyond belief: I went into the hospital overnight with chest pains, and the hospital bill was $25,000. It’s time to lift this yoke off the necks of some of the most vulnerable and defenseless members of society – and that is precisely what End Medical Debt does.
-- Alan Grayson, Former Congressman (D-FL)  

End Medical Debt explains that among all the developed countries, only Americans risk the probability that medical treatment will be financially inaccessible or that a family will be made destitute from a serious injury or disease. The sacrifices families make for medical care of loved ones is heartbreaking. The experience and wisdom of authors Jerry Ashton, Robert Goff and Craig Antico have resulted in the system presented in their exciting new book. Their charity, RIP Medical Debt, may well help us to turn the corner on this major problem facing quality medical care in America.
-- Nancy A. Niparko, MD; Diplomate, American Board of Psychiatry & Neurology; Attending Physician Neurologist, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles 

About this edition

• Publisher: Hoku House
• Publication date: 2018
• ISBN 10: 0989224120
• ISBN 13: 9780989224123
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 193
• Editor: Freed Judah