Health Care

Q&A: Former N.C. Health Secretary Kody Kinsley

Kinsley discusses the state’s novel approach to erasing medical debt.
North Carolina Health and Human Services Secretary Kody Kinsley, center, speaks while Dave Almeida with the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, left, and Gov. Roy Cooper listen at an Executive Mansion announcement on Monday July, 1, 2024, in Raleigh, N.C. (AP Photo/Gary D. Robertson)

An initiative launched last year in North Carolina is drawing national attention as a potential blueprint for addressing medical debt at scale. 

The program, which incentivizes hospitals to wipe out low- and moderate-income patients’ unpaid bills and does not spend any state or federal dollars, has already erased more than $6.5 billion in medical debt for more than 2.5 million people.

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