Commissioners in New Mexico's Santa Fe County deemed 2,340 outstanding emergency medical and ambulance bills uncollectible and will write off their more than $5.1 million balance, according to a Santa Fe New Mexican report.
One of the unpaid bills represents a few hundred dollars from an incident in 1949, while another is from an unpaid account dating back to 1973. The rest are dated between 2001 and 2013, with accounts ranging from a few dollars to hundreds of dollars.
While the county will write off the debts, Don Moya, county finance chief, said the bills will not be forgiven.
"It does not mean we will never try to collect," Mr. Moya told Santa Fe New Mexican. "It just moves them from a balance sheet on accounts receivable to uncollectable."