Bonus #2 - Champions of Charity: Allison Sesso: Eradicating Medical Debt

<p><strong>OVERVIEW:</strong></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Jason A. Duprat, Entrepreneur, Healthcare Practitioner, and Host of the</span> <em><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Healthcare Entrepreneur Academy</span></em> <span style="font-weight: 400;">podcast chats with Allison Sesso, Executive Director of RIP Medical Debt. She talks about the issue of medical debt, how RIP Medical Debt was established, and what model it operates on. She also offers advice to people who want to donate to a nonprofit or are looking to start one.</span></p> <p><strong>EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS:</strong></p> <ul> <li><span style="font-weight: 400;">Allison is a born and bred New Yorker with a background in political science and public administration. She worked with 200 nonprofits during her tenure at the Human Services Council of New York. She joined RIP Medical Debt in January 2020—just before the pandemic started.</span></li> <li><span style="font-weight: 400;">People don’t have enough money to pay their medical bills, but the healthcare industry expects them to pay these bills out of their pocket.</span></li> <li><span style="font-weight: 400;">We tend to spend a lot on healthcare but not on the social determinants of health.</span></li> <li><span style="font-weight: 400;">Craig Antico and Jerry Ashton leveraged their expertise in debt collection and started RIP Medical Debt in 2014. The company has a “debt engine” that pairs donor dollars to the available debt. </span></li> <li><span style="font-weight: 400;">A key donation came from MacKenzie Scott, one of the richest women in the world, who generously donated $50 million.  </span></li> <li><span style="font-weight: 400;">One in five Americans has medical debt. The total amount of medical debt is around $1 trillion and it’s the top cause of bankruptcy.</span></li> <li><span style="font-weight: 400;">Allison talks about how COVID affected the healthcare system and medical debt. She also shares her thoughts on the Affordable Care Act.</span></li> <li><span style="font-weight: