No private entity is gonna solve the trillion dollar mess that is the US healthcare system. However, they can completely solve the problem that is people who ar

No private entity is gonna solve the trillion dollar mess that is the US healthcare system. However, they can completely solve the problem that is people who are almost bankrupt because of medical debt and have that bankruptcy hanging over their heads. Their ceiling is essentially everyone that is extremely likely to declare bankruptcy because they’re unable to pay the debts. The actual owners of the debt are not gonna get any money back. Even a 3rd party is not likely to buy the debt because the only people who are gonna pay for this debt are charities like this and they aren’t required to do so, so they get to completely set the market rate. Essentially, you have a lender that’s lent out $100 in medical debt to people who are basically bankrupt and is likely to get no money back. A 3rd party might gamble that they will probably get $1 back so they may be willing to pay $0.75. However, this charity can offer the lender $1.25 and actually get $0 back because their purpose isn’t to make money (they can also “lose” money). Their purpose is to either prevent someone from going into bankruptcy or removes a huge burden on people who may already have declared bankruptcy. What actually makes this system work is a properly functioning bankruptcy court. If the bankruptcy court didn’t effectively protect borrowers, then there would be no incentive to sell the debt for so cheap since you could try and extract money out of the borrowers. Alternatively, if the bankruptcy court was easily abused to discharge debt by people who can afford it, then lenders would exit the medical debt industry altogether (or rather, all treatments would end up requiring upfront payment).