An ambitious medical debt relief initiative involving nearly every North Carolina hospital has well exceeded its first-year goals for low-income and middle-income households.

Gov. Josh Stein and state Health Secretary Dev Sangvai announced Monday t hat more than $6.5 billion in unpaid medical debt has been relieved for more than 2.5 million N.C. Medicaid enrollees since the program debuted in July 2024.

That includes $1.22 billion in forgiven medical debt for at least 301,991 patients in the Triad and northwest N.C.

The goal was to forgive $4 billion in medical debt owed by an estimated 2 million households. Medical debt that exceeds 5% of a person's annual income is forgiven.

The state said the $6.5 billion includes debt relieved through the program directly, as well as additio

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