- Local activists protested outside the Leon County Courthouse to demand changes in healthcare, such as wiping out medical debt.
- County Commissioner David O'Keefe is looking into partnering with the group Undue Medical Debt.
- Watch the video for a breakdown of neighbors' concerns and how county leaders are taking action.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
Activist groups are joining forces again, but this time, they are fighting for change in healthcare. I’m Kenya Cardonne in the Downtown Tallahassee neighborhood. Affordable healthcare and medical debt cancellation are just some things neighbors say they want local, state and federal leaders to take action on.
A multi-faceted call for change.
Madalyn Propst, Rising Voices Collective - “We're focused on bridging the gap between the working class and the political activist space because we need the power to truly be where it belongs, where the Constitution says it is: with the people.”
Census data shows more than 10% of people in Leon County don’t have health insurance.
Simon Monteleone, Rising Voices Collective - “Which is an insane number for any county.”
Local activist group Rising Voices Collective says the state of healthcare is in crisis.
It’s why they took to the Leon County Courthouse on Sunday with several goals in mind:
- To increase representation through Tallahassee Memorial Healthcare’s Community Health Needs Assessment,
- To demand a better income threshold for Medicaid eligibility,
- And call on county commissioners to help wipe out medical debt for the vulnerable in our community.
David O’Keefe, Leon County Commissioner - “When you relieve families struggling with that debt, you increase their ability to have stable housing, to access food and to spend money on things in our local economy.”
It’s something Commissioner David O’Keefe says he immediately started looking into last year when he heard of Orange County’s success story with an organization called Undue Medical Debt.
It’s still very much in the research phase, but the commissioner says it would boost both economic and medical stability for neighbors, local business and healthcare providers.
O’Keefe - “A rough estimate we got, which will have to be updated when we get into details, is that with a $500,000 investment here in the county, we can relieve up to $50 million of medical debt for local citizens that have this burdensome, uncollected debt on them.”
Monteleone - “If he's successful in copying what Orange County did and copying what counties in Texas have done, what counties in Georgia have done, what counties in Louisiana have done, if we're successful here, I will be so elated, so happy to see our county commission caring about those who are downtrodden, those who don't have the means to pay off that medical debt. I'll be insanely happy.”
The group’s effort continues Monday. Demonstrators will gather at 3:00 P.M. outside the Capitol to protest an amendment to Senate Bill 232. That bill deals with consumer protections against prohibited debt collection practices
In Downtown Tallahassee, Kenya Cardonne ABC 27.
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