Up to $400 million in medical debt held by Pennsylvanians would be cleared under Gov. Josh Shapiro’s new budget proposal, with relief targeted at the state’s poorest and most underwater residents. Shapiro's budget proposal calls for $4 million in taxpayer money to be used to buy up obligations accrued by people who couldn’t afford necessary care such as MRIs and ambulance trips, and to forgive those unpaid bills. Such debt, Shapiro said in his budget speech last week before the Pennsylvania General Assembly, is “an anchor holding those families and communities back.”