ST. LOUIS — 5 on Your Side is bringing you an update on a story we reported on months ago. An effort to pay off millions of dollars worth of medical debt for St. Louisans has come to a screeching halt.
Our reporter, Sydney Stallworth, met with the St. Louis Ward 14 Alderman Rasheen Aldridge, who spearheaded the effort to repay medical debt and sponsored St. Louis City Board Bill 181, which outlined the plans to execute the medical debt repayments for city residents.
The original plan was to use $800,000 of American Rescue Plan Act federal funding, given in the wake of the COVID pandemic, to pay off up to $80,000,000 worth of medical debt for St. Louisans. Aldridge tells our reporter, the city planned to partner with a nonprofit that pays medical debt for pennies on the dollar to get it done…