A TV station like no other

If you don't pay a medical bill and it's been in collection for a while, the hospital or doctor sometimes sells your debt to another company at a deep discount. Then that company hassles you for the money as interest keeps piling up.

A TV reporter in Seattle, Washington, learned about this while preparing a story about how local folks were dealing with medical debt. He wanted to help, so he got his station to spend about $12,000 to buy up to $1 million worth of medical debt owned by folks in western Washington. And the station is forgiving all of it. About 1,000 people in their viewing area will get a letter this month telling them their debt is waived, and they don't owe money anymore.