Evan Spiegel and Miranda Kerr Just Erased $550 Million in Medical Debt for 261,000 Strangers in California
Photo The Mega Agency
A charitable gift from a celebrity couple is about to quietly wipe out the medical bills of hundreds of thousands of people across California — and the recipients don’t have to do anything to claim it.
Snap CEO Evan Spiegel and his wife, model Miranda Kerr, founder of the skincare brand KORA Organics, funded the forgiveness of roughly $550 million in medical debt for more than 261,000 people across California. The couple married in 2017 and share three young sons.
They did it through a donation to Undue Medical Debt, a nonprofit that buys large bundles of unpaid medical bills for pennies on the dollar and then forgives them. Because the debt is purchased so cheaply, a single donation wipes out a face value many times larger. The couple’s gift cleared about half a billion dollars in bills off the books.
Recipients generally qualify if their income falls below 400% of the federal poverty level, or if their medical debt is more than 5% of their income. There’s nothing to sign up for and nothing to pay back. Starting in mid-July, people will simply find a letter in the mail telling them their debt is gone.
Kerr framed the gift around what illness does to a family. “When someone you love is sick. All you want to do is focus on helping them get better. That’s why we wanted to support this effort and help relieve medical debt, so families can focus on caring for their loved ones and really supporting their healing.”
She also wanted people to trust the letter when it shows up. “One of the reasons we wanted to share this directly is because if you happen to receive a letter in the mail saying your medical debt has been forgiven, we want you to know it’s real.”
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