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Advocacy group’s act highlights medical debt, bankruptcy

On Behalf of | Mar 22, 2013 | Avoiding Bankruptcy

It is likely that the vast majority of Americans have not yet heard much, if anything, about an organization called Strike Debt, which is a group recently spawned from the efforts of Occupy Wall Street.

That latter organization might more quickly ring a bell with many readers, given its high-profile efforts since 2011 to identify and combat what the group perceives as stark social inequality and injustice stemming from corporate greed.

Strike Debt is an offshoot of the Occupy campaign and somewhat akin to a 21st-century Robin Hood-type effort aimed at taking from the rich and giving to cash-strapped persons suffering severe financial constraints.

The special target of Strike Debt is medical debt, which the group states — and which is readily confirmed through many sources – is a prime catalyst leading to bankruptcy filings. We have in fact noted in past blog posts how unexpected and soaring medical costs entrap millions of individuals and families, resulting in creditor harassment and, often, desperate attempts to restore solvency through debt negotiations and debt settlement.

Strike Debt seeks to publicize this problem and, in its own say, do something about it. The group recently purchased more than $1 million in medical debt, for example (for mere pennies on the dollar) and subsequently forgave the debt obligations of more than 1,000 randomly selected people.

For those persons selected, being notified of that was certainly good news, with Strike Debt’s actions clearly being motivated by altruism and the group’s antipathy toward what it states is an overt element of greed in medical costs.

It is also, of course, largely symbolic, given that many millions of people have a troublesome level of medical and other debt that they are struggling with. The well-established and strongly proven recipe for dealing with those stresses is consultation with an experienced and empathetic bankruptcy attorney, who can help a client eliminate debt and secure a fresh financial start.

Source: CNN Money, “Occupy offshoot forgives $1 million in random people’s debt,” James Jobes, March 16, 2013

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