Oakland County, Michigan set to erase $6 million in medical debt for 6,300 residents

A new round of debt cancellation expands a county program funded with federal pandemic recovery dollars

Oakland County, Michigan is preparing to eliminate more than $6 million in medical debt for an additional 6,300 residents, extending a countywide initiative designed to reduce the financial strain tied to unpaid medical bills. The upcoming relief follows an earlier phase that abolished $9.1 million in medical debt for more than 14,000 residents, bringing the county’s total to at least $15 million cleared through the program to date.

The effort is financed with a $2 million allocation from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), the federal COVID-19 recovery package that local governments have used for a range of health and economic stabilization measures. County leaders have described the goal as erasing up to $200 million in qualifying medical debt for roughly 80,000 residents, contingent on the availability of debt portfolios from participating health care providers.

How the program works, and who qualifies

The county partners with the national nonprofit Undue Medical Debt, which purchases portfolios of delinquent medical bills for a fraction of their face value and then cancels them. Residents do not apply for this relief. Eligible individuals are selected from the debt portfolios acquired for cancellation, and notifications are sent directly to those whose debts have been abolished.

Eligibility generally includes residents whose household income is at or below 400% of the federal poverty level, as well as residents whose medical debt is equal to at least 5% of their annual household income. These thresholds are intended to prioritize households most likely to experience ongoing financial stress from medical bills.

• No application is required; relief is triggered by the identification of qualifying debt.
• Debt is cancelled, rather than refinanced or restructured.
• Program reach depends on which hospitals or providers make debt available for purchase and cancellation.

Why local governments are pursuing medical-debt relief

Municipal medical-debt relief programs have grown nationally as communities look for ways to address the downstream impacts of unpaid health bills, including collection activity and household budget disruptions. Medical debt has also intersected with consumer-credit policy in recent years. In January 2025, federal regulators finalized a rule aimed at removing medical bills from credit reports, but in July 2025 a federal judge vacated that rule, leaving a patchwork in which credit-reporting practices and scoring impacts may still vary based on the type of debt and reporting timelines.

What happens next

The county’s next wave of relief is expected to roll out as qualifying debt is finalized for purchase and cancellation and as residents are notified. County officials have framed the initiative as part of a broader affordability agenda that also includes housing-related investments, while emphasizing that medical-debt cancellation is a targeted tool that can deliver immediate household relief when qualifying debt portfolios are available.

Residents who receive notices that their medical debt has been abolished are not required to take further action to secure the cancellation.

For households affected, the program’s practical impact is straightforward: medical bills included in the cancelled portfolios are eliminated, reducing outstanding balances that might otherwise persist for years through collections and payment plans.