OPINION: Medical debt relief is a lifeline of hope for New Mexicans

Few things test a person like a serious health challenge. Anyone who has spent days, weeks, months or even years in a hospital knows this. I’m one of them. My name is Harrell Love, and I'm an 85-year-old Albuquerque resident.

I’ve spent plenty of time in a hospital. In 1995, I fell 30 feet while painting a sign for work and broke many bones. I was lucky to survive. Years later, I was hospital-bound for weeks with an infection at the base of my spine. These times were hard in their own right, but I got through them. What made them worse was the long-term pain that medical debt brought afterward.

Having medical debt is like getting sick twice. While I spent nights in the hospital fighting for my health, my wife and I were just as worried about the bills that would come after the healing process. And for good reason. After I left the hospital, we spent years under constant collection calls telling us that we owed more money. We were doing the best we could, but the debt just kept piling up and piling up.

I know that there are thousands of others out there in the same situation. One in 11 New Mexicans struggle with medical debt. Those of us who have been in that category can tell you that the stress of medical debt can create a second psychological burden that’s just as bad as the physical pain and suffering that got you there in the first place.

My stress persisted until Presbyterian Health came to our rescue and found that I was eligible for medical debt relief based on our limited income. They helped me with over $1,500 of medical debt, returning my life to normal. This was a lifeline of hope for me. I have four kids, four grandkids and two great-grandkids. It’s important that I stay healthy, and that I can afford to stay healthy, to be there for them.

Unfortunately, with health care funding being cut across the board by the Republican tax law passed last year, the weight of medical debt is only becoming heavier for many New Mexicans.

It’s now more important than ever that our federal representatives step up and help ease the burden.

Rep. Gabe Vasquez, D-New Mexico, is doing just that. He’s working to pass a law — his Patient Debt Relief Act — that would allow nonprofits to relieve medical debt for folks whose medical debt exceeds 5% of their annual income. This would create thousands of lifelines like the one that saved me.

This kind of solution is exactly what we need to help everyday New Mexicans like me fight the greed of the health care system. Because the whole broken system comes back down to that one thing: greed. The greed of the system and the love of money. If that could be resolved, a lot of people would feel better and get well quickly.

No New Mexican — and really no human — should have to live with the stress of medical debt. I hope that other members of Congress will join Vasquez in helping people live out their days focusing on what’s important — kids, grandkids and great-grandkids — instead of being crushed by medical debt.

Harrell Love is a senior who lives in Albuquerque and has experienced significant medical debt.