Casey McIntyre died from cancer on 12 November, but she devised a plan to cancel the medical debt of others as a parting gift

The New York City book publisher arranged to use money raised in her memory to buy up the medical debt of others – and then pay it off, according to a website which assisted her philanthropic effort and as of Friday had collected nearly all of her six-figure goal.

“A note to my friends: If you’re reading this, I have passed away,” read a recent post on McIntyre’s account at X – the social media platform formerly known as Twitter – which partly served to detail her campaign. “I’m so sorry. It’s horseshit and we both know it. The cause was stage four ovarian cancer.”

After describing how much she, her family and her friends loved each other, McIntyre’s account linked to her campaign at RIP Medical Debt’s website. Her accompanying farewell message added: “To celebrate my life, I’ve arranged to buy up others’ medical debt and then destroy the debt. I am so lucky to have had access to the best medical care at [the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York] and am keenly aware that so many in our country don’t have access to good care.”

  • Professorozone@lemmy.world
    8·
    1 year ago

    I’m guessing in every other developed country, the medical industry doesn’t have a stranglehold on the government.

    • Fedizen@lemmy.world
      4·
      1 year ago

      America is essentially run by corporations, you’d have to drastically expand the voting system to make it easier to route around corporate influence if you want to change anything. I’m talking nixing the “district” system in favor of multiwinner elections.

      • Bernie_Sandals@lemmy.world
        2·
        1 year ago

        I’ll yell from the roof tops about it every single time something even remotely similar is brought up. The Fair Representation Act would go a long, long, long way in fixing the inherent structural issues we have around voting and representation in this country.

        Essentially, it turns the house of representatives into a bunch of multi member districts that get elected through proportional representation. Would both kill Gerrymandering and the innefectuality of third party voting with a single law, not even an amendment. It would also require STV/Ranked Choice Voting for all other federal elections like the President or Senators.

        Unfortunately, because it’s such a procedural and non-sexy law, it’s having a hard time gaining broad activist support beyond heavily involved people like staffers, aides, and the like.