sehnsuchttraum:

briedoof:

crypticcripple:

cripples-r-us-swag:

crypticcripple:

Medical debt is sort of funny

Like what they gonna do? Repossess my health?

I never had it to begin with, you silly debtors

A few fun facts! All of this I learned after being near death and spending a week in critical care in a hospital that didn’t offer any sort of charity assistance and I was uninsured.

(Some do, so if you think you’re f’d, check to see if they offer anything first.)

First of all: while dealing with a terrible kidney infection, a 104 fever that had been going for a week, and who knows what else, a nice lady from their finance department came to me with some paperwork to sign. Luckily I was so out of it (I had even spelled my name wrong when I first checked in because I was so out of it) that I said I couldn’t (which was true).

I later learned what she was asking me to sign was some sort of a “lien” which would have given them all the rights to come after me and re-posses any property I had later to make up for the debt.

So, whatever you do when you’re sick, if you don’t understand something do NOT sign it.

Since then I got calls for a few years from a debt collector, I never talked to them, said I wasn’t available, whatever. Eventually they stopped calling.

I owe a hospital about $700,000 for having the audacity to have a kidney infection and an autoimmune disease which were trying to kill me simultaneously.

That was probably 5 years ago. From what everyone has told me, it can’t effect my credit. Medical debt can not effect your credit. Also, now that I’m no longer being harassed by those debt collectors, I never hear from anyone.

To me in the end, I learned to simply walk away from it, and I won, as far as I can tell.

I know the OP was making a joke, but I thought I’d put out some info in case anyone out there has the unfortunate luck to get critically sick in the US without insurance, because seriously it’s really fucking expensive.

Important info because my snarky butt is uneducated

Try researching the rights you have about debt and medical debt in your state/country. This might apply for you.

Hi tumblr– I used to be a debt collector, AND I’ve had to declare bankruptcy because of debt, so I want to tell you a little bit about medical debt and how to deal with it. Ignoring it is not an option, because they can sell the debt to a third party law firm that specializes in debt collections, and they will obtain a judgement or lien against your property that can be renewed indefinitely. 

Medical debt doesn’t directly affect your credit score, but it will show up on your debt to income ratio, which matters a lot when you try to get any kind of a loan, car, home, or student. 

So what the fuck do you do? First, know that uninsured patients get charged astronimically higher rates for services than the service is actually worth. The person above was likely charged tens of thousands of dollars for anti-biotics worth about $20. You can contact the finance department and ask for an itemized bill. Once you have it, negotiate. Yep, this is a case where you can and should haggle. You might be able to get your debt cut down to a manageable level this way. 

Another option is to look at your income– if you are under the state and federal poverty line, you may qualify to have the state pay for a portion of the service, or to have some of the fees waived entirely. You need to ask! 

Finally, if you find yourself in medical debt over $10,000, just go bankrupt, for the love of god. Bankruptcy will show on your credit for seven years, but it will not impact your ability to get loans, go to school, get certain jobs and so on. You can do what I did, and file yourself to save money. 

The biggest thing with ANY debt, is that you need to be in control of it. Yes, it’s scary, yes debt collectors can be assholes. Stay calm, keep your paperwork organized to the best of your ability, and know that you can request contact by mail only, but you will have to send letters to that effect.