18,000 Delawareans getting early holiday gift — $18.8 million in medical debt relief

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More than 18,000 Delawareans will get some welcome news in the mail in the days before Christmas.

Their old medical debt has been forgiven.

The early holiday gifts, which total $18.8 million in value, are the first round of the Meyer administration’s program aimed at relieving $50 million in residents’ medical debt this year. Delaware lawmakers allocated $500,000 to partner with Undue Medical Debt, a nonprofit that buys bundles of medical debt for about a penny on the dollar.

Gov. Matt Meyer told WHYY News on Wednesday that the forgiveness letters have been sent out and should arrive in mailboxes starting Friday.

“No one should go into debt simply to stay alive,” Meyer said. “They shouldn’t have their ability to get housing, to get education, to buy a car, crippled simply by trying to stay alive, getting the medical care that they or a family member deserved.”

“This is about recognizing that our health care system today is failing Delawareans and doing everything we can in a pretty creative way, getting a pretty extraordinary value to eliminate a debt burden.”

The letters with the state seal and Meyer’s signature will list the debt amount, the medical provider, a QR code to confirm receipt and other information, including these words in bold blue type: “REST ASSURED YOU NO LONGER OWE THIS MEDICAL DEBT.”

Meyer also assured recipients that the letters are not a scam or a marketing pitch like so many others they routinely receive.

“It’s 2025. I, like a lot of Delawareans, get phone calls and emails and postal mail all the time saying that I can get this debt erased or this car insurance rate that’s better, and almost all of it is not real,” Meyer said. “And we’re trying to communicate that if you get one of these letters, it is real.”

Meyer said that millions of dollars more in medical debt relief will be coming to thousands more people sometime in 2026, depending on when Undue Medical Debt can buy more portfolios of unpaid bills from hospitals or commercial debt buyers.

The governor also said he realizes that relieving $50 million in medical debt is only a fraction of the estimated $401 million that the federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has reported was owed by residents in 2020.

To that end, Meyer didn’t commit to proposing another taxpayer allocation to the program, but said his administration will evaluate the effectiveness of the initiative next year before deciding the next steps.

“We’re going to do this smartly, really targeted to people whose lives and livelihoods are really being negatively impacted simply by trying to get basic health care,” he said.

Delaware House Speaker Melissa Minor-Brown said in a statement she’s proud that lawmakers approved the $500,000 investment in the fiscal year 2026 budget.

“We are all just one injury, diagnosis, or accident away from having our lives turned completely upside down,” Minor-Brown said. “This initiative is lifting the heavy burden of medical debt and providing real, life-changing relief.”

Undue has contracts to abolish patients’ overdue debts with about 25 states and localities nationwide, including New York City, Pittsburgh, Connecticut and New Jersey, where more than $1 billion in debt has been forgiven since last year.

There is no application process for the relief. Residents of Delaware can qualify in two ways:

• Have annual household income at or below 400% of the federal poverty level — $129,600 for a family of four or $62,000 for someone who lives alone.
• Have medical debt that’s at least 5% of their annual household income.