This organization is erasing medical debt by the millions [Video]

PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — The weight of medical debt can be crushing, but Undue Medical Debt is helping relieve some people of that burden.

The nonprofit raises funds to buy and forgive medical debt, which CEO Allison Sesso says affects 1 in 4 Americans.

“It is the kind of thing that you can’t avoid,” she said. “The number one indicator of whether or not you end up in medical debt is not your insurance status, it’s whether or not you get sick.”

“It actually is a determinant of your health, because the medical debt creates all of these other anxieties, and it undermines your ability to sleep well … it makes you buy less healthy food because you have less money, like there’s all these things that undermine your well-being when you have medical debt.”

Sesso explained there’s a secondary market where debt collectors buy debt from hospitals for a fraction of what’s owed.

“One dollar can get rid of one hundred dollars of …