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Ohio Church Wipes Out Over $46.5 Million In Medical Debt

February 26, 2020

A pastor at a church in Cincinnati mentioned the burden of medical debt during a recent sermon.

Within a week and a half, members donated enough to abolish over $46.5 million in medical debt.

Crossroads / Senior Pastor Brian Tome

Crossroads Church senior pastor Brian Tome told members of the congregation they could text "MULTIPLY" to 313131 to help free others from medical debt, but insisted the campaign was not a challenge.

For every dollar they raised, Crossroads' partner RIP Medical Debt would leverage that dollar to abolish $100 in medical debt.

Church officials announced the impact of their campaign Sunday morning.

In Ohio, church officials said they have abolished $42.8 million in debts across 41,233 households in 103 ZIP codes.

They also abolished $1.9 million in debt across 2,974 Kentucky households, $1.5 million across 503 Tennessee households and $200,000 across 136 Indiana households.

But Crossroads officials did not want this story to be about them.

"We kept it off social media," said Crossroads director of marketing Brennan Hill. "We really want it to be about people in our community, like I said, who are currently giving."

According to RIP Medical Debt, Crossroads' campaign is its largest amount of medical debt that's ever been retired. The nonprofit's site claims that its partnerships have erased almost $1.4 billion in medical debt to date.