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Medical debt is a widespread problem in the US. One in five working-age Americans have trouble paying their medical bills, according to a 2016 Kaiser Family Foundation/New York Times survey

RIP Medical Debt was founded in 2014 by two former debt collections executives, Craig Antico and Jerry Ashton. 
During their decades in the debt-buying industry, Craig and Jerry had learned of thousands of Americans saddled with unpaid and un-payable medical debt and realized they were uniquely qualified to help these people in need.

They went on to create a unique way to forgive medical debt; they would use donations to buy large bundles of medical debt for a fraction of its price, like debt collectors do, and then forgive that debt with no tax consequences to donors or recipients. Reportedly the debt purchase price averages a penny on the dollar, so, wiping out $100 of medical debt would cost about $1 

RIP Medical Debt, is a New York based 501(C)(3) which is focused on helping people who are suffering the crippling medical costs
exacerbated by our broken health care system. The results have been spectacular  —  Nearly $1.4  billion in medical debts  have been eradicated so far, providing financial relief for over 650,000 individuals and families. The organization says it seeks to relieve medical debt for those most in need, meaning people who earn less than two times the federal poverty level, have debt that is 5% or more of their annual income or face insolvency, meaning their debts are greater than their assets. 

Click here to find out more about RIP Medical debt. There is also an  article in CNN about this topic.

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"I'll wait for you,"
she told me before.
"I'll wait for you
at the end of Life's door."

"Live your life
as you did before
and I'll be here
for evermore.
I'll be waiting
at Heaven's door."

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

Blown by fast winds from a hot, massive star, this cosmic bubble is much larger than the dolphin it appears to be. Cataloged as Sharpless 2-308 it lies some 5,200 light-years away toward the constellation of the Big Dog (Canis Major) and covers slightly more of the sky than a Full Moon. That corresponds to a diameter of 60 light-years at its estimated distance. The massive star that created the bubble, a Wolf-Rayet star, is the bright one near the center of the nebula. Wolf-Rayet stars have over 20 times the mass of the Sun and are thought to be in a brief, pre-supernova phase of massive star evolution. Fast winds from this Wolf-Rayet star create the bubble-shaped nebula as they sweep up slower moving material from an earlier phase of evolution. The windblown nebula has an age of about 70,000 years. Relatively faint emission captured in the featured expansive image is dominated by the glow of ionized oxygen atoms mapped to a blue hue.

Photo by ChilesopePleaides Astrophotography Team

I hate not you;
just your wicked ways.
Your selfish behavior
must soon go away.

For want of life.
For want of fame.
You must learn
to play the game.

Where do we go?
What will I do
if I cannot
be in bed with you?

To rise in the morning,
to fix your tea
with your breakfast,
what will I be?
For you will be
at another place,
I'll be unable to see
your smiling face.

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

What created this unusual hole in Mars? The hole was discovered by chance in 2011 on images of the dusty slopes of Mars' Pavonis Mons volcano taken by the HiRISE instrument aboard the robotic Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter currently circling Mars. The hole, shown in representative color, appears to be an opening to an underground cavern, partly illuminated on the image right. Analysis of this and follow-up images revealed the opening to be about 35 meters across, while the interior shadow angle indicates that the underlying cavern is roughly 20 meters deep. Why there is a circular crater surrounding this hole remains a topic of speculation, as is the full extent of the underlying cavern. Holes such as this are of particular interest because their interior caves are relatively protected from the harsh surface of Mars, making them relatively good candidates to contain Martian life. These pits are therefore prime targets for possible future spacecraft, robots, and even human interplanetary explorers.

Off in the distance,
Across the vast pond,
Our ancestors, by chance,
Decided to come
to this wonderful place,
Both near and far,
For the prettiest face,
As I saw who you are.

The tilt of your head
when you are talking to me
contains all the joys,
I hoped to see.
Our friendship has been
a lifetime of trial,
as seeing your face
brightens my smile.
I must leave you now;
I'll be gone for awhile,
please wait, not for me
but do linger awhile.

I live the day
to sip the wine,
harvested from
the gnarly vine.

I prefer red,
my wine of choice
but will drink white
when we rejoice.

What you drink
is up to you,
please don't drink
the Mountain Dew.