Sep
Medical Bills Hurt
Ouch. Ouch. Ouch. That’s about all I can say. I’ve been absent here at DebtKid for a while. The story begins this way…perhaps as a result of an old injury, or lifting something, I managed to somehow critically damage a disk in my back.
If you’ve never experienced it before, it is perhaps the most excruciating pain I’ve ever experienced.
Co-pays are rolling in…. MRI, CAT-scan, acupuncture (great for pain control by the way), prescriptions and several months of physical therapy. It’s like the budgetary equivalent of death by paper cuts. Add to that, our oldest daughter had a terrible and mysterious stomach ailment resulting in hospitalization and more co-pays. Daughter #2 still needs those fillings too, a $500 dental co-pay expected soon.
It pretty much wiped out our get-out-of-debt progress for August and the conceivable future.
Due to the back pain and the heavy medication I was unable to work for six weeks, so there’s no cash flow for this month from my two small businesses (again, thankful for my husband’s job!)
Like the proverbial silver lining, from every crisis we can draw a lesson. One thing that I know about myself is that I learn best while uncomfortable (financially, socially or physically, it doesn’t matter… I learn if I’m uncomfortable).
Here’s what I’ve learned so far:
Have an emergency fund
Minimum $1,000. My CAT-scan was $5,000 with a co-pay (even under my excellent insurance) was $300. That was for the machine itself. Later I got bills for materials, and the radiologist who read the scan. Medical bills go to collections faster than many other bills, so plan to pay them.
Have health insurance
Six years ago I had a very unexpected open-heart surgery. The bills amounted to over $500,000, my co-pays were under $5,000. Our current health insurance plan, while having hefty co-pays does max out at $2,000 per family member per year, so a max of $8,000 in medical bills per year for all of us. Hmm…. $8,000 a year, or $500,000+. Insurance may be one of your largest household expenses, but even if you are young and healthy like our family (all nonsmoking generally healthy people under 30 years old) emergencies happen. You can’t leave yourself in the position of choosing between critical medical care and bankrupting your family.
Take care of yourself
As it turns out, my back injury could have been prevented with a better core-strengthening program—or just re-conditioning after my open-heart surgery. Had I made an effort at getting my body back in shape and strengthening my muscles, I would have likely saved myself all of this pain, expense and down-time.
Learn how to negotiate with medical providers
They are in business too, and ultimately want to get paid! They will wheel and deal a bit if they think they need to. Communicate with providers about their invoices. If you can’t pay it now, call and tell them when you will pay it, and they won’t be so quick to shuttle it off to a collections agency. Better yet, be proactive, call up and ask for a “deal” to pay early, or see if your provider is registered with PaymentClinic (www.paymentclinic.com) as you may be able to arrange for an early payment incentive (lower fee).
Be a patient patient
Better to be alive and well in debt than dead or in misery, right? This too shall pass. One foot in front of the other. Follow the steps above and be diligent. Prevent what you can, and properly treat what you can’t. The bright light is that this time I’ve dodged the bullet on surgery which would mean many more weeks without work. Physical therapy is teaching me how to tone up muscles that will prevent future back injuries, and help me to get in shape without causing other injuries–the key to this, just like getting out of debt, will be to stick to the plan.
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