Tzedek DC was recently featured in an NPR/WAMU article and associated NPR All Things Considered podcast episode on medical debt. The pieces discuss Mayor Bowser’s recent commitment to invest District funds to allow for the cancelation of an estimated $80 million in medical debt for DC residents.
“For so many, medical debt is not optional,” Tzedek DC’s Founding President & Director-Counsel, Ariel Levinson-Waldman, noted in the article. “Medical debt is a result of your health, and that’s not something we all control.”
In the podcast clip at the top of the article and beginning at the 2:33 minute mark, he further elaborates on the medical debt as a racial justice and disability justice issue: “It's shouldered disproportionately by members of the disability community who are disproportionately from communities of color in DC.”
The Mayor’s decision follows recent testimony by Tzedek DC to the DC Council highlighting medical debt and, along with allied organizations, urging swift action to improve the lives of some of the District’s most vulnerable residents.