Ultimate List of Charities That Help with Medical Bills and Expenses 2026

Introduction

Medical costs in the United States can quickly become unmanageable, even for those with insurance. Hospital stays, surgeries, prescription drugs, and medical devices often lead to financial stress for individuals and families alike. Fortunately, there are a number of reputable charities that help with medical bills, equipment needs, and travel expenses related to healthcare. These organizations provide financial assistance, resources, and support to ensure that critical medical care is accessible to all.

This guide outlines a range of charitable organizations and programs that can help alleviate these burdens. Whether you need help covering a hospital bill, obtaining durable medical equipment, or traveling for specialized care, the information below can point you in the right direction.

Charities That Help with Medical Bills

1. Dollar For

Overview:
Dollar For is a nonprofit organization that advocates for patients by helping them apply for hospital charity care programs. Many hospitals have financial assistance policies (FAPs), but most patients are unaware of them or unsure how to apply. Dollar For simplifies the process and advocates on the patient’s behalf.

Services Provided:

• Submission support for hospital financial assistance applications
• Personalized case reviews
• Guidance through nonprofit hospital charity programs

Eligibility Criteria:
Eligibility depends on the hospital’s specific financial assistance policy, usually determined by household income, family size, and federal poverty guidelines.

How to Apply:
Patients can start by submitting their information through Dollar For’s official website. The process includes checking eligibility and working directly with Dollar For advocates.

2. Patient Advocate Foundation (PAF)

Overview:
The Patient Advocate Foundation offers direct services to patients with chronic, debilitating, or life-threatening illnesses. They provide personalized case management, financial aid, and support with insurance-related obstacles. The PAN Foundation merged into Patient Advocate Foundation in March 2026, and on July 1, 2026 the combined organization launched a single unified assistance program, TotalAssist program.

Services Provided:

• Navigation of insurance appeals and denials
• Co-pay relief for eligible treatments
• Financial assistance with various out-of-pocket medical expenses

Eligibility Criteria:
Applicants must have a qualifying diagnosis and meet income and insurance-related requirements. Co-pay relief is typically for those insured but struggling with high treatment costs.

How to Apply:
PAF’s free Case Management service — one-on-one help with insurance denials, access to treatment and disability applications — takes applications at 1-800-532-5274, Monday to Friday 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. ET. To qualify you need a confirmed serious diagnosis (or to be undergoing testing), to be in active treatment, starting within 60 days or finished within the last six months, to be a U.S. citizen or permanent resident, and to be treated in the U.S. or a U.S. territory. One practical warning: PAF caps how many new cases it accepts each day so that case managers can go deep on each one. If you are told the queue is full, that is not a denial — call back the next morning. Financial-aid funds and copay assistance are separate and run through patientadvocate.org.

3. HealthWell Foundation

Overview:
The HealthWell Foundation helps underinsured patients afford the costs of critical treatments and services by offering financial grants.

Services Provided:

• Financial aid for prescription medications
• Help with insurance premiums, deductibles, and co-pays
• Specialized funds for pediatric treatments

Eligibility Criteria:
HealthWell assists households with income up to 300–500% of the federal poverty level depending on the fund. Two hard requirements catch people out: you must have some form of health insurance — private, Medicare, Medicaid or Tricare — and you must be receiving treatment in the United States. Assistance runs for a rolling 12 months, after which you can reapply.

How to Apply:
Apply online or call (800) 675-8416, Monday to Friday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. ET. Check the fund status the day you apply. HealthWell operates disease-specific funds that open and close as money runs out, and the open list at healthwellfoundation.org/disease-funds changes frequently. If your fund is closed, sign up for their email or text alerts so you hear the moment it reopens — funds are usually claimed quickly.

Charities That Help with Medical Equipment

1. MedShare

Overview:
MedShare focuses on collecting and redistributing surplus medical supplies and equipment to healthcare facilities and communities in need, both domestically and internationally.

Services Provided:

• Donation of medical equipment to nonprofit organizations and community clinics
• Institutional only — MedShare supplies healthcare facilities and free and charitable clinics, not individual patients

Eligibility Criteria:
Primarily serves clinics and healthcare organizations. Individuals can inquire about specific personal needs and referrals.

How to Apply:
More information can be found on MedShare’s donation request page.

2. Project C.U.R.E.

Overview:
Project C.U.R.E. delivers donated medical supplies and equipment to developing countries, helping underserved communities and low-resource health systems.

Services Provided:

• Large-scale medical equipment donations to international clinics and hospitals
• Institutional and international only — a U.S. patient cannot apply to Project C.U.R.E. directly

Eligibility Criteria:
Primarily supports healthcare institutions. For individual inquiries, contact is recommended to assess availability.

How to Apply:
Visit Project C.U.R.E. to learn how to request supplies or initiate a partnership.

3. Convalescent Aid Society

Overview:
This organization lends durable medical equipment to individuals at no cost, allowing them to maintain independence and receive care at home.

Services Provided:

• Loans of items like wheelchairs, walkers, crutches, hospital beds, and shower chairs

Eligibility Criteria:
Residents of the San Gabriel and San Fernando Valleys in California.

How to Apply:
Apply directly through the Convalescent Aid Society’s website or contact them for service availability.

Charities That Help with Medical Travel Expenses

1. TotalAssist — the merged PAN Foundation transportation fund

Overview:
The PAN Foundation has historically offered transportation grants to help patients reach critical medical care, especially for rare and chronic diseases. Update (August 2026): PAN merged with the Patient Advocate Foundation, with combined operations effective July 1, 2026, and its charitable assistance — including transportation funds — is now delivered through the new TotalAssist program.

Services Provided:

• Grants of up to $500 for non-emergency medical transportation (bus, gas, train, taxi)

Eligibility Criteria:
Patients must meet income thresholds and have a qualifying diagnosis covered under PAN’s disease funds.

How to Apply:
Eligibility screening and applications now run through TotalAssist’s fund finder, or call the TotalAssist call center at 866-512-3861, Monday to Friday 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. ET. Set your expectations carefully here. TotalAssist is primarily a copay, coinsurance, deductible and premium assistance program spanning roughly 150 disease funds — it is not a transportation program with a new name. Transportation is listed among its funds, and the legacy PAN transportation grant was a $500 prepaid Visa card that required you to already hold a PAN copay or premium grant and to have household income at or below 500% of the federal poverty level. Whether that benefit is open to new applicants today is not clearly published, so call and ask before you count on it.

2. Angel Flight

Overview:
Angel Flight is a network of volunteer pilots and organizations providing free air transportation for individuals needing to travel for specialized medical care.

Services Provided:

• Free non-emergency flights for patients and companions
• Access to rural or distant treatment centers

Eligibility Criteria:
Patients must be medically stable and financially unable to afford commercial travel. Distance to treatment is also a factor.

How to Apply:
There is no single national “Angel Flight.” The Air Charity Network is the umbrella and takes requests at (877) 621-7177; its members divide the country by region — Angel Flight West (AK, AZ, CA, CO, HI, ID, MT, NV, OR, UT, WA, WY; 888-426-2643), Angel Flight NE (New England, NY, NJ, PA), Angel Flight Central (the upper Midwest and Plains), Angel Flight South Central (AR, LA, OK, NM, TX), Angel Flight Mid-Atlantic, Angel Flight Southeast (FL and the Caribbean), Mercy Flight Southeast (AL, GA, MS, SC) and Airlift Hope (NC, TN). Two large organizations sit outside that network and are easy to miss: Angel Flight East in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania (215-358-1900) and Angel Flight Soars, which serves Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, the Carolinas and Tennessee (1-877-426-2643). For trips over 600 miles, Mercy Medical Angels arranges free commercial airline tickets as well as gas cards and bus or train tickets. All of these flights are free to the patient.

3. HealthWell Foundation’s General Travel Fund

Overview:
This fund supports transportation and lodging for patients traveling to access treatment for illnesses already covered under other HealthWell grants.

Services Provided:

• Financial assistance for travel, lodging, meals, and parking

Eligibility Criteria:
Available only to those with active HealthWell grants. Income and diagnosis requirements apply.

How to Apply:
Visit the General Travel Fund page to check qualifications. Note (August 2026): the fund is temporarily closed to new patients due to lack of sufficient funding — only re-enrollments are being accepted; check the fund page for current status before applying.

Two federal rights worth more than most charity grants

Before you apply anywhere, use the two things federal law already gives you. Between them they cancel more medical debt each year than every charity on this page combined, and neither costs anything.

1. Every nonprofit hospital must have a written financial assistance policy — and must tell you about it. Under IRS rule 501(r)(4), a tax-exempt hospital is required to maintain a Financial Assistance Policy stating its eligibility criteria, whether the help is free or discounted care, how amounts charged are calculated, and exactly how to apply. It must post that policy on its website with free unrestricted access, keep free paper copies available — at minimum in the emergency room and admissions areas, publicise it in a way calculated to reach the people most likely to need it, and provide a plain-language summary, translated where a significant share of the community has limited English. This is why Dollar For exists and why it works: it screens you against your specific hospital’s policy and helps you file. Ask the billing department for “the financial assistance policy and application” by name, and ask in writing. Many hospitals forgive bills for households well into the middle class — Dollar For notes that on average a family of four earning under about $100,000 will qualify somewhere.

2. The No Surprises Act gives you a Good Faith Estimate and a way to dispute the bill. If you are uninsured or paying out of pocket, providers must give you a written good-faith estimate of what your care will cost, and if the final bill comes in at least $400 more than that estimate, you can dispute it. Usually you must request the estimate, or schedule the service at least three business days ahead. The Act also protects you from surprise bills for emergency care, for out-of-network providers working inside an in-network facility, and for air ambulance transport. Know the gaps too: ground ambulances are not covered, nor are vision-only or dental-only plans, short-term plans or fixed indemnity plans. The federal No Surprises Help Desk is 1-800-985-3059, open seven days a week with support in 350+ languages, and the consumer guide is at cms.gov/medical-bill-rights.

Government Programs for Medical Financial Assistance

In addition to nonprofit organizations, several federal and state programs offer relief for medical expenses:

1. Medicaid

Overview:
Medicaid is a state and federally funded program that provides health coverage for low-income individuals and families, including seniors and people with disabilities.

Eligibility Criteria:
Eligibility varies by state but is primarily based on income and family size.

How to Apply:
Visit Medicaid.gov or your state’s Medicaid office to begin the application.

2. Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP)

Overview:
CHIP provides low-cost health coverage to children in families who earn too much to qualify for Medicaid but still need assistance.

Eligibility Criteria:
State-specific rules apply, but most are income-based.

How to Apply:
Learn more and apply through InsureKidsNow.gov.

3. Medicare Savings Programs

Overview:
These programs assist with Medicare premiums, deductibles, and copayments for individuals with limited financial resources.

Eligibility Criteria:
Eligibility is income- and asset-based. There are different savings programs depending on coverage needs.

How to Apply:
Apply through your state’s Medicaid office or find information at Medicare.gov.

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• Get Help Paying For… (all financial assistance guides)

Frequently Asked Questions

Who is eligible for medical bill assistance?

Eligibility typically requires demonstrated financial hardship and unpaid medical bills. Some organizations focus on specific conditions. Income documentation is usually required.

How much of my medical bills can be covered?

Coverage varies widely. Some organizations pay bills in full, while others offer partial assistance. The amount depends on your income, the organization’s funding, and your specific situation.

What is the application process?

Most programs require an application with documentation such as medical bills, proof of income, insurance information, and proof of medical hardship. Processing times vary.

Can hospital charity care programs help?

Many hospitals offer financial assistance or charity care programs. Contact the hospital’s billing department to inquire about assistance programs based on your income and situation.

Conclusion

Navigating the world of medical expenses can be daunting, especially when facing serious illness or injury. However, you’re not alone. From hospital bill relief to free transportation and donated medical supplies, the organizations outlined in this guide provide critical support to individuals and families in need.

Start by identifying your most urgent needs—whether it’s help with a bill, acquiring equipment, or traveling for treatment—and contact the organizations that best match your situation. Each has different eligibility criteria, but many are flexible and compassionate in their mission to assist those in crisis.

Explore your options, ask questions, and advocate for yourself or your loved ones. Help is available, and these charities exist to provide it.

Need Help Specifically With Surgery Costs?

If you are facing a specific surgical procedure and need financial help, check out our dedicated guide to charities that help pay for surgery. Many organizations specialize in funding specific types of surgeries and can provide substantial grants. Also see our guide to charities that help with dental care for dental-specific assistance.

➤ Charities That Help With Prescription Costs

For dental-specific assistance, see our guide to charities that help with dental bills. For prescription help, see charities that help with prescription costs.