Transformation Church Erases Medical Debt for Escambia County Residents
Transformation Church in Pensacola,Florida,has partnered with the non-profit institution Undue Medical Debt to eliminate medical debt for individuals and households in Escambia County. The initiative aims to provide relief to those earning four times below the federal poverty level or whose medical debt constitutes 5% or more of their annual income.
The church, with approximately 1,700 members, allocated funds from its annual tithe - 10% of all donations received – to purchase and forgive the debt. ”This is just something we do,” explained Pastor Justin Oswald, executive pastor at Transformation Church. “We don’t stand up there and take up a special offering. We teach our church that we all tithe,but we tithe as a church as well.”
the project was inspired by a video Pastor Oswald saw featuring another church utilizing Undue Medical Debt’s services. Church leaders determine project allocations and funding levels at the beginning of each year.
Local businessman and church member, David Livingston, and his wife Ashley, were particularly moved to support the initiative due to their personal experience with the financial burden of medical bills. Their 5-year-old son, Jabyn, passed away in 2018 after a 3 ½ year battle with a disease requiring frequent hospitalizations. “He had been in and out of hospitals for 3 1/2 years,” Livingston shared. “So, on a personal level, we know what it feels like to have a medical debt hanging over your head, so when Justin brought the idea to me it almost was an instant yes for me. We just needed to figure out how and what we could do.”
Undue Medical Debt, founded in 2014 by former debt collection executives, was born from inspiration drawn from medical debt elimination efforts during the 2011 Occupy Wall Street movement. The organization purchases bundled medical debt, often for pennies on the dollar, and then forgives it. To date,Undue Medical Debt has reportedly relieved over $22 billion in medical debt for more than 14 million people,working with partners like Transformation Church.
Livingston emphasized the generosity of the church’s congregation as key to the success of the project.”God has called us to steward the generosity of our church and so we don’t take that lightly,” he said. “We always want to look for the maximum return on investment.”
Due to privacy regulations, Transformation Church will not be able to identify individuals whose debt has been erased unless those individuals choose to come forward. “We don’t even know if anyone in our church will be affected or not,” Oswald stated. “we would love that, but this is for the community.”
Transformation Church is located at 6800 Mobile Highway and is opening a new campus in Gulf Breeze this month.
