Hospital Bills
Member
Join Date: Mar 2014
Posts: 25,373
Hospitals will work with you to set up a payment plan.
Call their financial office now before you get overwhelmed and talk about options. You will be able to pay it off, it may take some time.
Next right thing. Make the call, don't let the bills get into arrears, that makes it more difficult for everyone. Just be up front and tell them what you can afford.
Call their financial office now before you get overwhelmed and talk about options. You will be able to pay it off, it may take some time.
Next right thing. Make the call, don't let the bills get into arrears, that makes it more difficult for everyone. Just be up front and tell them what you can afford.
Member
Join Date: Jun 2009
Posts: 545
There are close to 50 million people in the US that have medical debt. You aren't alone. There are just as many with massive college loan debt. Everything can be worked out. Just DON'T ignore it. Contact and make a payment plan. As much as you can. Even $25 a month. Millions of people are going thru this too. You are not the only one. You will survive.
Member
Join Date: Feb 2013
Location: W Washington
Posts: 11,589
bills are not the fault of sobriety - they are a part of life.
we all have a debt. some more than others.
but every person who got OUT of debt or paid off some big bill started in the exact same place.......one payment at a time.
drinking won't fix a thing.......particularly if any of those bills were drinking related!
it's a fire.
add WATER not DIESEL.
we all have a debt. some more than others.
but every person who got OUT of debt or paid off some big bill started in the exact same place.......one payment at a time.
drinking won't fix a thing.......particularly if any of those bills were drinking related!
it's a fire.
add WATER not DIESEL.
Member
Join Date: Jun 2009
Posts: 545
Many years ago I had to pay off what was for me huge debt. I was young and had two DUI's. Totaled my car and someone elses. The fines, the attorney's, the increased insurance, loss of my job....on and on. A lot of money. Now 25 years later that is all behind me and things are so much better. Don't wallow in the today. Start taking care of business and before you know it you will be ahead of the game.
Member
Join Date: Jun 2009
Posts: 545
Originally Posted by ThatWasTheOldMe 
What happens to the single, uninsured mom working at minimum wage when she has to take her kid to the hospital because he's running a fever of 104?
Member
Join Date: Jun 2019
Posts: 290
TWTOM, I got an ER bill for a speck of something in my eye last summer, which must only be a fraction of what you're dealing with, so I can really only understand a fraction of how you must be feeling right now. I hope you'll stick around, even if it's just to vent. Sorry to hear about this situation, anyway!
Member
Join Date: Jul 2018
Posts: 1,312
Twotm: I get it. Healthcare in the US is expensive to get and it’s also expensive to not have healthcare. It makes many people apprehensive of seeking medical care when needed. Either way it is a hard situation.
But it I do think that you can solve this situation. The solution may not have made itself clear to you yet, but it is there. Are you eligible for any type of financial assistance, SNAP benefits, food banks, etc to help offset your costs?
But it I do think that you can solve this situation. The solution may not have made itself clear to you yet, but it is there. Are you eligible for any type of financial assistance, SNAP benefits, food banks, etc to help offset your costs?
Member
Join Date: Apr 2019
Posts: 412
Bankruptcy wipes out medical debts better off than the ones with student loans! I have someone i know as a child who is in his 50s who became homeless and got really sick and ended up in the ICU for over a week after an emergency surgery and cardiac arrest he is still with us and doing better. Unlike many countries around the globe who would have let him die on the streets in the United States they have to take you. Not going to get political but I feel practicing some gratitude might help. I have found myself in past feeling down about my situation but if you look at the big picture... You live in a first world country with no risk of starvation, internet access, urgent medical care, a job, a roof over your head and your health. I know it is hard to do at the moment but if you consider all these things you will see how amazing your life really instead of thinking how much it sucks
Member
Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: Warwick RI
Posts: 1,276
Originally Posted by ThatWasTheOldMe
It seems sobriety for me will consist of going broke paying off hospital bills until I can't take it anymore and I decide to "go away."
Hospital bills...suc...but they are not worth dying for...or stressing so much about...
Your everyday stuff you need is more important...I read someone said they set up payment plans...OK..but they will never refuse to treat you they can't...
Member
Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: Warwick RI
Posts: 1,276
Originally Posted by ThatWasTheOldMe
I'm more concerned about people that have to choose between insulin and feeding their kids than I am about my own medical debt. It's the system that pisses me off; not my own misfortune.
OH BOY Does the system **** me OFF...I can't even think about it without a lot of anxiety and blood pressure rising.
My sister that never worked (she has passed now)...but the situation pissed me off so badly...Never worked....got to have an apartment for 300 a month from the age of 21-51....food stamps.....free health care....free dental (although the dental is horrible)....free lawyers....free social worker that visited her weekly and took her shopping etc....
ME...I worked over 35 years....became disabled in 2012...and I STILL have co-payments..can't see my therapist as often as I need cause I can't afford it...NO HELP with my mortgage, heat or food because get THIS...I make too much money on SSDI....
I can go on and on and I go postal about this topic all the time out in public.
I remember being in a really bad mood in the Drs office...and yelling at the Dr...enough so everyone could hear me in the waiting room...that I am SICK of people like them that probably NEVER worked and NEVER paid into the system....get more benefits than me...I really CAN NOT deal with this topic...LOL
Member
Join Date: Aug 2017
Posts: 850
Well, you could always try to do something to help society. System's not gonna change, unfortunately. But there are ways to make a difference in your community and help those in need, even if it's something as simple as donating food, or volunteering for a local community program, helping a kid with his math homework, who knows. Unfortunately we have to help ourselves, cuz it's not like Bezos is gonna feel like parting with his billions for the greater good tomorrow morning. Doing something impactful might make you feel a little less hopeless, too. Idealist? Yeah. Naive? Yeah. But if I don't have the connections I've made with people, what else do I have?
We have to take sobriety one day at a time, because staring down forever is really scary. To subvert the "forest for the trees" quote, sometimes I think we need to just focus on planting trees, instead of trying to grow a whole forest. Maybe finding a way to plant a few trees in your community can help us all grow a forest.
We have to take sobriety one day at a time, because staring down forever is really scary. To subvert the "forest for the trees" quote, sometimes I think we need to just focus on planting trees, instead of trying to grow a whole forest. Maybe finding a way to plant a few trees in your community can help us all grow a forest.
Member
Join Date: Oct 2018
Posts: 591
If I’m uninsured and seriously sick, I’m going to Costa Rica where they will treat you no matter what. They take your passport number and mark your debt till you pay it. Healthcare is a fraction of the cost. Or I’d go to a private hospital in Central America where cost are about 1/3 of USA hospitals. What if you don’t pay what they ask? They can’t repo your healthcare. Do they lower your credit score? Call them and dispute the charges. Our system is BROKEN, here doctors don’t treat the patients, they cater to the mighty insurance companies. A documentary Sicko shows a man losing his house because he had a heart attack, another part shows the insurance denying a life saving treatment to a man dying of cancer who was told to just go die at home. I could go on and on, I’ve live in countries with national healthcare and if even Nicaragua has nhs wtf is happening here in USA? No government paid healthcare is not the best, but they keep you alive and take care of basic ailments. I didn’t wait months for doctors, more like hours. Also it puts pressure on the private hospitals to lower cost significantly. My friend is a single mom in Central America with cancer, thank god the last they she has to worry about is financial repercussions for her radiation. My friend has wrist surgery at a private hospital there for $6,000 here in the states she was quoted $18,000. Anyways, dispute the prices and care, call them and say you can’t pay and definitely don’t drink because the bill will be even higher next time.
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