let's abolish some medical debt

I tell people I don't really know what How I'd Fix Atlanta is anymore, and it's kind of a joke, but it's also kind of true. It started out as a list of writers on my laptop. Then it turned into a free newsletter sent on a Thursday of most months. Then it became an annual zine that costs money. Here and there, it's a reading on a stage or a conversation with some people in a building somewhere. It's often stickers. Occasionally it's someone on a podcast interviewing me or a story in a magazine linking back to us. How I'd Fix Atlanta is large, it contains multitudes.

In fact, last September, HIFA was a fundraiser where we raised $25,000 that a nonprofit used to abolish $3.1 million dollars in medical debt for 3,000 Georgia families. Let's do that again, but bigger.

Here's the campaign page. If there's anything you take away from this email, it's that I'd like for you to click that link, donate what you can, and share it with everyone you know. Post it on your social channels. Drop it in your group chats. Bug your rich friends. Let's get bonkers with this shit.

We'll spend the next couple weeks seeing how much money we can raise to abolish medical debt in ATL and beyond. Here's how it works: on average, $1 is leveraged to abolish $100 in medical debt. (Put another way: if you donate $100, you'll cancel out $10,000!) When someone's debt is wiped out, they get a surprise envelope in the mail from Undue Medical Debt letting them know that this awful, unnecessary burden has been lifted. Erased with no strings attached. They owe nothing and face no tax penalty. Pretty rad, right?

That's all for now. Wanna partner with us to spread the word? Donate a giveaway to encourage donors? Some third thing? Just reply to this email.

I'll be in touch as we start making some progress. We're gonna wipe out a bunch of medical debt in Georgia. Thank you so much.

talk soon,
Austin