What it means for you
Since 2024, New York City has paid a nonprofit to buy and cancel residents' unpaid medical bills. By October 2025, it had wiped out nearly $135 million in debt for more than 75,000 people; recipients owe nothing on the erased debt.
Who benefits: New York City residents at or below 400% of the federal poverty line, or above 400% but below 1,000% with medical debt of at least 5% of income; more than 75,000 had debt cancelled by October 2025.
If you live in New York City and owe a hospital or doctor money you couldn’t pay, the city may already have cleared it. The city pays Undue Medical Debt, a nonprofit, to buy bundled, qualifying debts from participating hospitals, health care providers, and debt buyers at a steep discount and then cancel them. By October 2025, nearly $135 million in debt had been wiped out for more than 75,000 New Yorkers.
You can’t apply or ask to have a specific bill cancelled. Undue identifies eligible debts in the portfolios that providers agree to sell. Under the city’s rule, your household income can be no more than 400% of the federal poverty line. If it is above 400% but below 1,000%, your medical debt must equal at least 5% of your yearly household income. The rule excludes debt owed to NYC Health + Hospitals and debt for FDNY ambulance rides. If your debt is selected, you get a letter saying you owe nothing on it, and the cancellation is not taxable income.
Mayor Eric Adams and Health Commissioner Dr. Ashwin Vasan announced the program in January 2024. The city committed $18 million over three years, with a goal of erasing more than $2 billion in debt for up to 500,000 people. In 2025 the city also opened free financial counseling at eight NYC Health + Hospitals locations. As of November 2026, the city still listed the medical debt program, and NBC New York reported that it was available until 2027.
Health careLower costs
Sources
- Mayor Adams Cancels Nearly $135 Million in Medical Debt for Working-Class New YorkersNYC Office of the Mayor, October 22, 2025
- Mayor Adams to Relieve Over $2 Billion in Medical Debt for Hundreds of Thousands of Working-Class New YorkersNYC Office of the Mayor, January 22, 2024
- Rules Relating to Cancellation of Medical DebtNYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, September 27, 2024
- Medical Debt ReliefNYC311
- New York City looks to clear $2 billion in unpaid medical bills for 500,000CBS News, January 22, 2024
- Mamdani announces new NYC debt relief programNBC New York, October 13, 2026
How we checked this
Drafted by Claude Opus 5.5 (Anthropic) on November 11, 2026. Checked against its sources by GPT-5.6-sol (OpenAI) on November 12, 2026, which corrected it. Confirmed the cancellation totals, funding, program mechanics, credit, and current status. Corrected the binding eligibility limits and several smaller overstatements, and added primary sources for the program’s rules and Vasan’s role.
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