Oklahoma Catholic parish launches medical‑debt relief effort to help families facing crushing bills

St. Eugene Catholic Church in Oklahoma City is challenging parishes across the country to follow its example after helping abolish more than $6.5 million in medical debt through a partnership with a nonprofit organization.

Father Jim Goins read about the “scourge of medical debt in the country” and decided to do something. About 20 million people — nearly 1 in 12 adults — owe medical debt, and federal data shows Americans owe at least $220 billion in unpaid medical bills, according to the ⁠ Peterson‑KFF Health System Tracker , an independent project of the Peterson Center on Healthcare and KFF that analyzes U.S. healthcare spending.

“It haunts people, haunts their credit reports,” Goins told EWTN News. “So I was also praying about that biblical concept of the year of favor, the year of favor from the Lord, how that debts were to be forgiven. Those who were in debt bondage were to be redeemed in that year of favor. Christ, of course, is the year of favor for us. But I wanted to do something on the parish level to address the problem.”

Goins discussed the matter with his parish administrator, Sharon Blakely, who located the nonprofit organization Undue Medical Debt , which…