“It’s love in action,” said the Rev. Jim Harrison, priest in charge at St. John’s Episcopal Church, which has committed $20,000 from the church’s endowment income toward this year’s fundraiser.
Harrison acknowledged raising money for medical debt relief won’t solve the larger structural issues created by a health system Americans can’t afford. The United States has the most expensive health care system of any country.
But it can bring relief. “This is treating a symptom, not a cause, but it’s something we can do and I think we need to,” Harrison said.
For many congregations, such as First Presbyterian, debt relief is also a form of reparations. In 2021, the Durham church began studying about reparations. Congregants read “From Here to Equality: Reparations for Black Americans in the Twenty-First Century” and discussed ways they could get involved with William A. Darity Jr. and A. Kirsten Mullen, the book’s authors.
The service project with RIP was one of the outcomes of the reparations study. The church explicitly targeted North Carolina counties with a Black or Indigenous population of 50% or more for debt relief.
“We see disproportionate outcomes in our health care system for people of color,” said Sharon Hirsch, a member of First Presbyterian who serves on the church’s racial equity task force.
A 2022 Urban Institute study found that counties with high shares of uninsured, low-income or Black populations have higher rates of medical debt. Southern states that have not expanded Medicaid eligibility for low-income Americans were more likely to have high levels of medical debt.
Helping those counties address that debt is one area where the church could make systemic change, Hirsch said.
“I just don’t know any other example where your money can go that far and have such a positive impact on an individual,” Hirsch said. “This is targeted relief that will reduce economic stress and support families in need of economic relief.”
This article originally appeared here.
