I have had 9 surgeries in the past 9 years. Are there any grants to help with medical expenses that this community could suggest?
Angela
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I don’t know of any grants, but I’d start with the medical facilities and apply for their hardship assistance. Then ask your local Rotary or civic club about any assistance that they offer or know of. You may find medical professionals in those organizations that have some connections. Do a grant search on Google- you may be directed to a grant website that may have a membership fee, but again, it may be worth it to check out. Ask town welfare or 211 if they know of any resources.
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This is a tough one- I faced this issue this year, but not to this extent- I am on a 0% payment plan, but as I have more things done, it extends out- but you can negotiate down your debt, they would rather get something than nothing. I have a friend who owed about 300k, and was allowed to pay $50 a month- it will never get paid off, but he’s not in collections, and thus not ruining his credit. If you are already in collections- that’s a different story, and there’s a way to handle that as well. Best of luck to you- so many people are in this same situation.
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Makingithappen2019 posted:
This is a tough one- I faced this issue this year, but not to this extent- I am on a 0% payment plan, but as I have more things done, it extends out- but you can negotiate down your debt, they would rather get something than nothing. I have a friend who owed about 300k, and was allowed to pay $50 a month- it will never get paid off, but he’s not in collections, and thus not ruining his credit. If you are already in collections- that’s a different story, and there’s a way to handle that as well. Best of luck to you- so many people are in this same situation.
If Im not mistaken, I believe credit scoring models started removing medical bills from credit reports. But I have no first hand experience with this.
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Makingithappen2019 posted:
This is a tough one- I faced this issue this year, but not to this extent- I am on a 0% payment plan, but as I have more things done, it extends out- but you can negotiate down your debt, they would rather get something than nothing. I have a friend who owed about 300k, and was allowed to pay $50 a month- it will never get paid off, but he’s not in collections, and thus not ruining his credit. If you are already in collections- that’s a different story, and there’s a way to handle that as well. Best of luck to you- so many people are in this same situation.
How did he get a hospital to agree to the $50.00a month? Every place I have dealt with sends you to collections if you cant make the minimum monthly payment. Its always too high so Ive had no choice but to let it go to collections. Then I set up a payment an with them but what they want is difficult.
In response to the credit situation, I have a very small bill that I let go to collections because I had heard that it no longer counts against your score, and was curious to see what would happen. I have free FICO score checking through several avenues, on one of them I had an 80 point drop immediately, then it went back up 40 points over time, the other 4 showed that I had a delinquent account, but my score didn’t change in the past year, and I’m still getting all kinds of offers, so I don’t know if it makes a difference or not, it didn’t for me.
As far as my friend goes, I don’t know- I think every situation is different, and depending on what hospital chain you are dealing with probably is the difference. I’m pretty convinced negotiation is the key. I hope you can try that and get some relief from the debt. Good luck- I really hope you can find someone who will work with you.
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First of all, I hope that you’re recovering well. I know that the stress of juggling health problems with financial problems feels unmanageable at times… I’ve been there!
I do not want to sound like one of the many armchair Facebook grammar Nazis out there but if you change the word “grants” to “assistance programs,” you will find more resources. You will not qualify for all of them because some are based on age, income, region (down to city, county and state) and then there are qualifiers such as the specific medical conditions behind the scenes of your post.
The United Way 211 resource was mentioned above. By all means, see if there are any organizations in their database that can help you; however, there are two other web sites that may (or may not) have more to offer: www.auntbertha.com and/or www.needhelppayingbills.com that come to mind. Don’t just look at the medical bills sections because your budget is made up of more than that so whether you can get $10 or $1000 for rental or energy assistance is that much more you have to pay onto the medical debt. Don’t look at the “all or nothing” options and you’ll find more options that can work.
Medicare recipients may be eligible for up to $4,900 a year of “extra help” with medical expenses although the program (subject to qualifiers) is not widely publicized. That $4,900 could make a serious impact onto one’s overall budget even if not applied directly to past medical debt. Recipients who do not qualify for Medicaid may have their Medicare costs covered under this program. Not on medicare? Disregard this paragraph. What it means is that there are programs and plans out there called “assistance” and not specifically “grants.”
My wife and I have streamlined our budget by $1500+ per month tackling $10 here and $100 there. This allowed us to pay our medical bills in full ahead of schedule after paying off our credit cards (and the interest costs). There may be solutions for you if you think outside of the box… or make the box bigger.
Deep breath. It doesn’t have to be an either/or answer which is proof that High School Algebra does come in handy in adult life. There are a lot of variables (x’s and y’s) to solve your equation.
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Several years back my wife and I couldn’t pay medical bills from the testing and searching for the diagnosis of my disability. It was a very high amount, somewhere over $20K I believe. We hunkered down, cut back to only the barest of minimums on what we bought and we finally paid those bills off. It took like what seemed forever. I was sure we wouldn’t pay them off but after negotiations and having a social worker from the hospital help us have the billings reduced we did.
Then in 2015, my wife was involved in an automobile accident that nearly cost her her life. We had the hospital sending us bills while she was still in the rehab hospital after her week in trauma. We had nearly all of those reduced significantly because my wife wasn’t the one at fault (3 car accident with her being in the middle), I was disabled and had already started paying what I could, but explained that her STD acct would not even cover those, that I was having to use over 1/2 of my SSDI every month to help keep it through the COBRA program. WE offered to keep paying, but the doctors all negated their fees except for a few small costs. Those were over $400K. By communicating with hospitals, doctors, lawyers, etc., we ended up paying just over $3K of the bills. Keeping the doctors, hospitals and others informed. Make a financial statement if you have to and show them the numbers. It DOES help in most situations. Here in our area, the local CBS affiliate is helping pay off people’s medical bills with donations from the public to them so that they can buy and eliminate the bills from collections. Pennies on the dollar really isn’t enough for the hospitals to fight over, that’s why they send them to collections in the first place.
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Thank you for all the tips. I hope your wife is doing better.
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Ray Taylor Tetreault posted:
First of all, I hope that you’re recovering well. I know that the stress of juggling health problems with financial problems feels unmanageable at times… I’ve been there!
I do not want to sound like one of the many armchair Facebook grammar Nazis out there but if you change the word “grants” to “assistance programs,” you will find more resources. You will not qualify for all of them because some are based on age, income, region (down to city, county and state) and then there are qualifiers such as the specific medical conditions behind the scenes of your post.
The United Way 211 resource was mentioned above. By all means, see if there are any organizations in their database that can help you; however, there are two other web sites that may (or may not) have more to offer: www.auntbertha.com and/or www.needhelppayingbills.com that come to mind. Don’t just look at the medical bills sections because your budget is made up of more than that so whether you can get $10 or $1000 for rental or energy assistance is that much more you have to pay onto the medical debt. Don’t look at the “all or nothing” options and you’ll find more options that can work.
Medicare recipients may be eligible for up to $4,900 a year of “extra help” with medical expenses although the program (subject to qualifiers) is not widely publicized. That $4,900 could make a serious impact onto one’s overall budget even if not applied directly to past medical debt. Recipients who do not qualify for Medicaid may have their Medicare costs covered under this program. Not on medicare? Disregard this paragraph. What it means is that there are programs and plans out there called “assistance” and not specifically “grants.”
My wife and I have streamlined our budget by $1500+ per month tackling $10 here and $100 there. This allowed us to pay our medical bills in full ahead of schedule after paying off our credit cards (and the interest costs). There may be solutions for you if you think outside of the box… or make the box bigger.
Deep breath. It doesn’t have to be an either/or answer which is proof that High School Algebra does come in handy in adult life. There are a lot of variables (x’s and y’s) to solve your equation.
Thank you. I appreciate your tips.
Never Give Up, my wife has continued to recover, went back to work on light duty the February after the accident, has since had a promotion, and will keep fighting any obstacles day by day. Thanks for the good wishes. I’m sure she appreciates them as I do.
It is so sad that in this country people have to be faced with such difficult situations regarding medical care and its cost. Everyone deserves to have the medical care they need/deserve and not have to choose between paying the bill or buying groceries. Something in this country needs to change and we need to eliminate corporate welfare so that the wealthy pay their fair share of taxes so that we can have an equitable healthcare system.
