How companies and nonprofits are tackling the U.S. healthcare crisis—until there’s a federal policy solution

Speaking with Fast Company at SXSW, healthcare leaders said their solutions are only Band-Aid fixes for a system that is very much broken.

[Photo: Maggie Boyd for Fast Company]

BY Anna-Louise Jackson

The healthcare crisis in the U.S. is one marked by rising costs, coverage gaps, staggering medical debt, and attacks on access.

While various groups have stepped up with innovative solutions to address these serious issues, experts say the crisis is likely to get worse in the absence of radical policy change at the federal level.

Consider how Undue Medical Debt is tackling the $220 billion in medical debt that affects some 100 million Americans.

Since the nonprofit was founded more than a decade ago, it has forgiven $27 billion in debt for 17 million people by buying debt for pennies on the dollar using donations.

But the cumulative mountain of debt is likely to grow even higher as costs go up, Allison Sesso, president and CEO, said during a panel discussion at the Fast Company Grill at SXSW. 

While states have stepped in with some measures to protect consumers from more serious financial ramifications that might stem from their medical debt, such actions—and the work that Undue Medical Debt is doing—are merely a Band-Aid of sorts.

“It is a systems problem and we have to address it in a systems way, and the system is very much broken for people,” Sesso said.

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