subject: Medical Debt: Options For Success [print this page] With insurance costs at what they are, there is no reason to doubt that more and more people are falling into medical debt. Even more true are the people who are falling behind on their medical debt.
Keeping up with regular month to month payments is a struggle for a large amount of the population. having medical issues and obtaining more debt because of the high cost in medical care and the lack of affordable insurance has made what seemed to be impossible a reality. Medical debt is quickly sold to pushy debt collectors.
What are some things that you can do if you have medical debt that you cannot pay?
*If you have a home and have equity built up in it, you could possibly have access to to cash. The rates for home equity loans are much lower than rates for other bank loans. It will increase your mortgage, but refinancing is also another avenue you can pursue if the total amount being paid is more than you can financially handle. If you have high medical debt, this is a great avenue to pursue.
*Those people who have no insurance or are under insured, a good practice is to have a talk with your doctor and negotiate lowering the cost for services. Polite persistence is the key to success here. You need to talk to the right people, so if you get a no, move on to someone else. That first person may not be aware that in general, doctors are willing to lower payments to help people out. The doctors know they are better off accepting less money than risking not getting paid at all. Some doctors actually have cash patient pricing list you can inquire about before services are rendered. If you do not ask, they will not offer. Sometimes the people you need to speak to are not in the office, but located in the billing department. Be polite, be persistent and negotiate with the right people.
*If you have room on a credit card or some room on many credit cards, you may benefit moving your medical bills onto them. This will be beneficial if you can get them paid in a decent amount of time. You will not want the balances to linger too long and have the interest payments become detrimental to your debt. One downfall to doing this, if you looking to apply for Medicaid to help you with your medical bills, you will not want the balance transferred to credit cards. Once it is on a credit card, it is no longer considered medical debt.
*You can look to credit counseling services. You will want to make sure the counselor you are receiving help from is trained and certified to help educate you on handling your money and taking care of your debt. These counselors will help you set up a budget, advise and educate you with everyday finances.
*Some people opt for bankruptcy. This is a last resort options available when all others have been exhausted. The bad part of bankruptcy is that it does clear the debt but offers no long term solution on how you can keep yourself out of debt again. There are many consequences to filing bankruptcy and it is not an easy road out of debt that some companies suggest it to be.
