Medical debt can be financially crippling, and a Georgia couple has made it their mission to remove that burden for potentially dozens of patients in Georgia and Alabama.
Pat Gant and her husband James are partnering with national medical debt relief organization RIP Medical Debt to cover $2.2. million in medical bills for residents in Columbus and Phenix City, Alabama.
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The Gants run a charity called Feeding Accepting Inspiring the Hurting aka F.A.I.T.H., and with the help of the national 501 (c) 3 RIP Medical Debt, every dollar donated to F.A.I.T.H.'s medical debt campaign will be matched with $100 of debt forgiveness. So, the Gants seeks to raise $22,000 to relieve the $2.2 million in debt for medical patients. In a Facebook post from Gants' organization, the process of the medical debt forgiveness is explained further.
“We will be collaborating with RIP, a company that buys medical debt for pennies on the dollar,” the post reads. “I hope you will donate to RIP through F.A.I.T.H for this worthy cause.
Pat Gant founded F.A.I.T.H. earlier this year with the specific mission of helping people struggling with medical bills or other sudden life events, she told the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer. The issue is something Gant has dealt with firsthand.
“This is a vision that I had because I was involved in a car accident, I broke my back in two places, and I couldn’t do anything for two years,” she told the newspaper. “ I thought about it and if I didn’t have insurance at the time when I was in the accident...my heart just went out for people that don’t have insurance.”
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RIP Medical Debt reports that its relief program has forgiven over $964 million in medical debt and provided financial relief to more than 480,000 families and individuals across the nation since the organization was founded in 2014 by former debt collection executives Craig Antico and Jerry Ashton.
The campaign launched on Nov. 21, and it will run through Feb. 28.
The Gants have lived in Columbus for 41 years, and James Gant is pastor of Corinth Missionary Baptist Church. Pat Gant works as his office manager, and she said she is hoping this fundraising campaign will be one of many helping families in Georgia.
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“There are many people and families struggling to pay exorbitant and overpriced medical bills due to high deductibles so I’m just asking people to be compassionate and to donate to this worthy cause,” Gant said.
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