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Health Care Crisis (Of the financial sort!)
enlightenedbum
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Hi H/A.
Basic information first, as I imagine this would help: I'm a 24 year old college graduate (male, white, areligious) living in southeastern Michigan (Ann Arbor to be precise). For the past year 9 months or so, I've had an elevated heart rate (~120 most of the time). I am also uninsured. This was first noticed when I went to the Urgent Care office with flu like symptoms + chest pain. At the time, it was thought it was pneumonia. Took my antibiotics, felt better for a bit, chest pain came back about a month later. It was livable if annoying for a while, went to the same Urgent Care docs finally in June. They had no idea, but didn't think it was serious.
Two weeks ago, there was blood on the toilet paper after I had a bowel movement. This freaked me out. The crux of the problem though is I'm unemployed and thus living with my parents. But they were on vacation when this happened, so Dr. Mom or whatever couldn't calm me down and wait til the morning to see a GP or something like that. So I went to the ER. This was a mistake.
They did a CT scan, bloodwork, EKG, didn't find anything wrong. Said the blood was an unrelated hemhorroid but were highly concerned by the heart rate. So I've been to a GP a couple times since. At first she suspected something like asthma, put me on a dose of Advair, which proved ineffective. She now suspects something heart related and in a few minutes I'm off to get a complete echocardiogram, for which I'm driving two hours to save 700 bucks.
This morning in the mail the ER bill came. Combined with all my other bills, I'm looking at five grand in payments, money which I do not have. And I still don't have a diagnosis (hopefully this test will find something treatable). For extra bonus fun, my Dad is currently getting paid at a significantly reduced rate and half of that goes to insurance for my parents and sister. And my mom got laid off. So my question to you H/A is this: do you know of any government/charity programs that would apply to me (thus the demographic information above)? Or any general tactics besides pleading poverty I should consider for when I call the billing departments at the various medical facilities I owe money to?
Basic information first, as I imagine this would help: I'm a 24 year old college graduate (male, white, areligious) living in southeastern Michigan (Ann Arbor to be precise). For the past year 9 months or so, I've had an elevated heart rate (~120 most of the time). I am also uninsured. This was first noticed when I went to the Urgent Care office with flu like symptoms + chest pain. At the time, it was thought it was pneumonia. Took my antibiotics, felt better for a bit, chest pain came back about a month later. It was livable if annoying for a while, went to the same Urgent Care docs finally in June. They had no idea, but didn't think it was serious.
Two weeks ago, there was blood on the toilet paper after I had a bowel movement. This freaked me out. The crux of the problem though is I'm unemployed and thus living with my parents. But they were on vacation when this happened, so Dr. Mom or whatever couldn't calm me down and wait til the morning to see a GP or something like that. So I went to the ER. This was a mistake.
They did a CT scan, bloodwork, EKG, didn't find anything wrong. Said the blood was an unrelated hemhorroid but were highly concerned by the heart rate. So I've been to a GP a couple times since. At first she suspected something like asthma, put me on a dose of Advair, which proved ineffective. She now suspects something heart related and in a few minutes I'm off to get a complete echocardiogram, for which I'm driving two hours to save 700 bucks.
This morning in the mail the ER bill came. Combined with all my other bills, I'm looking at five grand in payments, money which I do not have. And I still don't have a diagnosis (hopefully this test will find something treatable). For extra bonus fun, my Dad is currently getting paid at a significantly reduced rate and half of that goes to insurance for my parents and sister. And my mom got laid off. So my question to you H/A is this: do you know of any government/charity programs that would apply to me (thus the demographic information above)? Or any general tactics besides pleading poverty I should consider for when I call the billing departments at the various medical facilities I owe money to?
The idea that your vote is a moral statement about you or who you vote for is some backwards ass libertarian nonsense. Your vote is about society. Vote to protect the vulnerable.
enlightenedbum on
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And if the medical billing people try to play hardball with you (threatening collections or whatever), play hardball right back. Threaten bankruptcy, or simply just not paying.
Well the goodish news is that regardless you will not be paying retail. Hospital bills are ridiculously amped the fuck up in part so insurance carriers can claim they get a huge discount for services and to largely prevent inter-carrier transparency.
See below:
http://www.michigan.gov/mdch/0,1607,7-132-2943_4860-35199--,00.html
Adult Benefits Waiver (ABW), a.k.a., Adult Medical Program (AMP)
ABW/AMP provides basic medical care to low income childless adults who do not qualify for Medicaid. There are asset and income tests. ABW/AMP medical coverage is limited (e.g., inpatient coverage is not covered). However, pharmacy is included. Some counties have a county health plan that the person must be enrolled in to receive ABW/AMP benefits. Some services may require prior authorization from the county health plan or state (if there is no health plan in the county of residence). Contact the local MDHS office in your county to apply for this program.
But whatever you do, do not just pay that bill.
This was already the plan, at the very least.
This definitely. Once it goes to collections you're not going to get a reduction and it will sit on your credit report for 7 years. Also, be careful with saying you won't pay because then you might get kicked right into collections and they won't do crap to help you.
Keep an open line of communication with the hospital to keep it with them. Most hospitals (especially nonprofit ones) will decrease bills for people without insurance.
Having to pay for health is a crime.
If you do get private health care does it cover all of the cost or a percentage? and then does the company screw you over more if you have repeated health problems?
Worst-case scenario is you have to declare bankruptcy which--while it sucks a whole lot--isn't nearly as bad as people think it is.
What if I (hopefully) need student loans in about a year?
Then really make sure you don't go into collections or declare bankruptcy. Check out the hospitals website, they usually have info for people in your circumstances. I've never heard of a hospital that doesn't do a billing plan at the minimum.
Then again, if your choice is having a collection agency harassing you for the next 7 years and a $7000 unpaid debt on your credit report, or a bankruptcy, I strongly suspect bankruptcy is the better option.
The hospital doesn't have to reduce it and if he goes in with an attitude like this he won't get shit. If they don't reduce then a billing plan to pay off the bill beats the hell out of bankruptcy or collections.
Setting up an affordable payment plan doesn't cripple and it does beat the hell out of bankruptcy if in the next seven years he want any kind of loan. In this economy he's going to be hard pressed to get a student loan with a bankruptcy on his record. Most places will agree to keep it off your credit report while you're making payments. Going into bankruptcy over $5000 is crazy stupid and I don't even know if it would be enough debt to qualify him to have it discharged or if he'd go through the process (and pay for the process as bankruptcy isn't free) just to have the case dismissed.
I have absolutely horrible credit, the likes of which you wouldn't believe and I had no problem getting a student loan this year. A bankruptcy would change that though so avoid that at all costs, just not paying would be better than bankruptcy.