Stacey Abrams' organization donates $1.34 million to pay off medical debt

Details: Fear of high medical costs and potential debt often cause people to forsake necessary care, Fair Fight noted.

• Medical debt accrual has declined in states that have expanded Medicaid, Fair Fight said in a release, yet Republicans continue to block full Medicaid expansion, refuse free federal funding and deprive "roughly four million people of meaningful health coverage."

"I know firsthand how medical costs and a broken health care system put families further and further in debt," Abrams said in a statement.

• "Working with RIP Medical Debt, Fair Fight is stepping in where others have refused to take action," she added. "For people of color, the working poor and middle-class families facing crushing costs, we hope to relieve the strain on desperate Americans and on hospitals struggling to remain open."
• People whose debts will be relieved through Fair Fight's donation will receive a letter of notification in the coming days.

The big picture: A higher percentage of households in the South report having medical debt compared to the West, Midwest and Northeast, according to data from a 2018 U.S. Census Bureau survey.

• 8.5% of households without full health insurance report a high medical debt burden compared to 2.9% of fully insured households.
• Black and Hispanic communities are also more likely to carry medical debt compared to white people.