Our budget has been blown. Completely, totally, and without hope of recovery (fast, anyway). We had our baby, but there were some complications. I still haven’t received all the doctor’s bills, etc., and the way that payments are done now (at least at this hospital), there is no sending the proverbial $25/month to the hospital for the next 36 years to pay it off. They said I could either put it on a credit card, and they would give me a discount (about 70%), or they could allow me to send in whatever I could, but it would be for the full amount, and at 18% interest. So I slapped down my credit card, and was happy that I’ll only be paying about 15% interest.
I will probably suspend updating for a while, at least until I somewhat recover from the reeling I’ve done over the past several days. Emotional decisions are never good (at least, that’s been my experience), so I want to let things calm down, and allow the logical side of my brain to start functioning again before we get too far down the road.
I will keep updating the debt and savings charts, just to keep myself on top of where we stand, though.
c'est la vie.
Huh? None of it will be covered? 70% discount?!?!
ReplyDeleteI'm struggling with health insurance now too. It's amazing the stories out there. Most insurance covers complications, even if they don't cover maternity, right?
I really hope all is well! I am sorry to hear about your budget. Do you not have health insurance to cover it?
ReplyDeleteIf I get a medical bill in the mail I always add a copy of my medical card and mail it back. Haven't had to pay yet.
Hope things look up for you :)
Is the discount 70% off? Like if the bill is $10,000 they will drop it to $3000? Or vice versa?
ReplyDeletesupposedly, if the bill comes in for $10k, I can renegotiate by asking them to drop 70% off, but we will probably end up owing the doctors anywhere from 40%-60% of the original bill. So, ask for 70% off, and get about 50% off...
ReplyDeleteDavid,
ReplyDeleteRead my blog, been there done that. Medical debt is terriby hard. I am so sorry! At least in my case, I was the ill party, not my family. It's terribly hard to deal with debt and family members too. God bless and keep you and your family.
Leanne Coffman
aka "Mrs. Bankupt.com"...