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Governments target medical debt with COVID relief funds

Somerville City Councilor Willie Burnley Jr., stands near City Hall, in Somerville, Mass, Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2023. Somerville could follow the lead of an increasing number of municipal, county and state governments and use federal pandemic relief funds to pay residents' burdensome medical debt. (AP Photo/Steven Senne) Somerville City Councilor Willie Burnley Jr., stands near the Prospect Hill Monument, Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2023, in Somerville, Mass. Somerville could follow the lead of an increasing number of municipal, county and state governments and use federal pandemic relief funds to pay residents' burdensome medical debt. (AP Photo/Steven Senne) Virginia Faust, of Somerville, Mass., poses in her home, Monday, Feb. 13, 2023. Faust has health insurance, but still fell several thousand dollars into debt in 2021 when a mental health emergency required a weeklong stay in the hospital. Somerville could follow the lead of an increasing number of municipal, county and state governments and use federal pandemic relief funds to pay residents' burdensome medical debt. (AP Photo/Steven Senne) Virginia Faust, of Somerville, Mass., poses in her home, Monday, Feb. 13, 2023. Faust has health insurance, but still fell several thousand dollars into debt in 2021 when a mental health emergency required a weeklong stay in the hospital. Somerville could follow the lead of an increasing number of municipal, county and state governments and use federal pandemic relief funds to pay residents' burdensome medical debt. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)