Posted on 06/06/2016 2:08:03 AM PDT by SMGFan
"We can tell you about the growing problem of medical debt and how hospitals are suing thousands of patients for having the gall to be both sick and poor, or how debt collectors screw-up and use illegal tactics to get paid for debts they often can’t even prove that anyone owes. But that’s nothing compared to the site of a goofy English guy forgiving $15 million in medical debt he bought for pennies on the dollar.
On Sunday’s Last Week Tonight, host John Oliver took a long, multifaceted look at the messy, shady world of debt collection and debt buying."
" The asking price was less than $60,000 for $14,922,261.76 in this zombie debt — or around $.004 for every dollar of debt owed. Purchasing the debt would give CARP the names, current addresses, Social Security numbers, and amount owed (or previously owed, as the statute of limitations had expired) for nearly 9,000 individuals."
(Excerpt) Read more at consumerist.com ...
Maybe, but it’s still a fascinating concept.
Good for him.
Definitely a publicity stunt, but a good one. Good for him
Do hospitals sue illegal aliens for their debt?
We have Medicare and Tricare Life, it is NOT our fault that a doctor or hospital fails to file the correct forms. Nor can we be held accountable when you bill us a year or more later. EAT it or get it right in the first place. Heck all you have to do is file Medicare and they will file Tricare Life for the rest. IF a test is not covered the computer knows and will tell them, it is up to them to ask you if you still want the test.
Wasn’t what I expected from the title, but good. A lot of people who complain about many issues could do more good by doing things like this (for publicity or not).
Off topic but it reminded me of what I’d really like to see is Michael Moore buy fast food franchises in Detroit and pay $15/hour instead of complaining about the minimum wage or nobody starting businesses in Detroit. I’m sure he can live without the ROI he’s getting on his wealth. I’d even be fine if he makes $millions with a movie on running not-for-profit businesses against for-profit competition and how to get investors for all-risk-no-reward enterprises (which is what he and his pals want).
Wait so long?
It is an amazingly corrupt industry committing illegal acts, with the help of our so-called lawmakers.
We’ve got quite the little problem around here, double billing is a matter of course. So every single time you go to the doctor, you get to wrangle with multiple offices billing you for the same thing and a zillion little bills arriving in the mail for stuff you already paid for.
I think these people now have to pay taxes on the forgiven debt
The kind of charitable works we all clamor for.
They don’t have to pay taxes on the forgiven debt - the entity that bought the debt gave it to another one to cancel it in a manner that also eliminates the taxes that would have been triggered by the debt forgiveness.
Or, the fat ignorant jackass MIchael Moore could just drop dead while I laughed about it.
The asking price was less than $60,000 for $14,922,261.76...IOW, he's claiming that the services and bandaids and stuff for which over $14 million was charged was *really* only worth $60 grand -- and that makes him just another partisan media shill and demagogue, like his fellow idiot Brit, Piers Morgan.
They would only have to pay taxes if the guy filed a 1099-C on them.
Far be it from me to defend a shmuck like John Oliver but no matter what he paid for it, he did pay for it. He may have one motivation or several but in the end, he signed the check.
You must not know how the junk debt business works.
By the way, there is a similar system for buying bankruptcy debt. One of the big players is Ecast.
Say it again, Sam! I've often thought that those who make humongous "gifts" to hospitals should request that the gifts be accounted as payment on some poor souls' impossibly humongous bills, instead of used to add a multi-million dollar indoor garden, or some such..
Notice that he could not just forgive the debt. The forgiveness had to be structured in such a way so as to prevent the federal or state taxing authority from viewing the amount that was forgiven as taxable income. Keep that in mind the next time someone complains about “greedy capitalists.” The difference between a greedy capitalist and a greedy bureaucrat is that we rarely let the capitalist employ deadly force to compel their victim to comply with their edicts.
Or so it seems to me.
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