If you have five dollars in your pocket, he says. Anything you put in the plate, every penny, helps settle the health care debts of our neighbors. As the congregation files out into the sunny first day of spring, a volunteer waits, shielding the collection plate from the wind to keep its growing pile of cash from flying out the door.
Keck had been surfing sermons on Facebook in Spring Huertas drew him in. He launched justNeighbors, a way to walk side-by-side with the people of the neighborhood and show their love. They hope to figure out a way to fill gas tanks. But first, the two pastors kicked around bigger ideas.
The pandemic had shone a light on healthcare and inequity. They knew churches around the country had bought up vast amounts of medical debt. For the next few months, Huertas dug in. He read as much as he could about medical debt, made cold calls and sent emails, learned all he could about this thorny American issue. To miss payments and end up in collections. Your kid gets sick. You get sick.
He learned there are programs that already address medical debt here. The Lancaster County Medical Society offers deeply discounted rates to patients overwhelmed by medical bills with the help of grants from the Community Health Endowment. During his months of research, Huertas tracked down the three debt collection agencies responsible for collecting most of the medical debt near the church.
They worked out a deal. The debt collector would be a silent partner, providing the church with a small discount on the balance and a list of central Lincoln neighbors with debt. No names. No addresses. The church had its own rules. The recipients needed to be current on payments, showing good faith on paying down their debt.
