Rev. Kate Byrd knows how hard it is to deal with medical debt because she saw a family member battle cancer and rack up a lot of bills.
“This person had three forms of insurance and was receiving in one or two bills, tens of thousands of dollars’ worth of medical debt,” said Byrd. “It was shocking to me.”
She chose to help the nonprofit Undue Medical Debt with its work to ease the financial stress that comes with medical debt when she heard about it.
“It was so clear to me that one medical crisis could undo your entire life and family, and so if there was something that we could do that was as small as just a campaign to help, I thought, ‘This seems wonderful.'”
The most recent church to want to help get rid of $14 million in hospital debt in Johnston County is St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Smithfield.
Other churches across the state, like Father Paul Castelli, rector at St. Timothy’s Episcopal Church in Wilson County, led the effort to get hospital debts forgiven in that county.
“It just seems like a natural thing to do regularly,” said Castelli.
In 2023, Wilson County helped nearly 2,500 people get rid of $4.6 million in debt. For every dollar raised during the campaign, the organization promises to forgive $100 of medical debt. Castelli hoped to stay with the group for another year.
“I know even when people received a letter saying that their debt has been abolished, they have a hard time believing it,” said Castelli. “But they come to realize that it is indeed true, and it’s an amazing gift.”
Castelli is now working in college ministry in West Virginia, but he said he was glad to see other churches interested in this and hopes the effort spreads to all of the Episcopal Church’s Diocese of North Carolina.
“Does it solve all of my money problems?” “No, but it does make things easier,” Castelli said. “I’m hoping these campaigns, these stories, inspire other people in our diocese to do the same thing.”
