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When staying alive means going bankrupt - 8/15/2007 4:25:50 PM   
Level


Posts: 25145
Joined: 3/3/2006
Status: offline 		LOMPOC, Calif. - Kathleen Aldrich, financially ruined by two bouts with ovarian cancer, is not who you might assume she is.

She raised three kids as a single mom. She worked hard for years. She had good jobs. She paid her bills. She lived in a nice house and drove a nice car. She had a decent credit rating. She had health insurance.

Now she has a record of bankruptcy and is the embodiment of the fear that nags at millions of U.S. families: that they are but one medical calamity away from losing everything. Like Aldrich, they — and perhaps you — could be.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20201807

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Fake the heat and scratch the itch
Skinned up knees and salty lips
Let go it's harder holding on
One more trip and I'll be gone

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RE: When staying alive means going bankrupt - 8/15/2007 4:33:01 PM   
camille65


Posts: 5746
Joined: 7/11/2007
From: Austin Texas
Status: offline 		I owe $78,000.00 plus change to a hospital.


FUBAR.

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RE: When staying alive means going bankrupt - 8/15/2007 4:40:44 PM   
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Posts: 25145
Joined: 3/3/2006
Status: offline 		Send them the change, and keep the $78 grand

I know it sucks. I'm paying bills off from almost ten years ago.

_____________________________

Fake the heat and scratch the itch
Skinned up knees and salty lips
Let go it's harder holding on
One more trip and I'll be gone

~~ Stone Temple Pilots

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RE: When staying alive means going bankrupt - 8/15/2007 4:45:53 PM   
camille65


Posts: 5746
Joined: 7/11/2007
From: Austin Texas
Status: offline 		$70 a month & I sure wish I had only agreed to $5 a month! Damn those pain meds that made me all agreeable n such  .

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RE: When staying alive means going bankrupt - 8/15/2007 4:48:43 PM   
bandit25


Posts: 3029
Joined: 6/18/2005
Status: offline 		Wait...honey, you don't work, do you?  I know that, at least here in Illinois, you can have the debt forgiven (to the hospital).  They write off X amount every year.  Have you looked into that?

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RE: When staying alive means going bankrupt - 8/15/2007 4:55:02 PM   
camille65


Posts: 5746
Joined: 7/11/2007
From: Austin Texas
Status: offline 		I have looked in that bandit yeah. Just got denied 4th round for SSI, but still plugging away on State aid. Honestly I'm just kinda giving up on it all.
(I miss my job, more than I will ever be able to describe)
Denial reason was over my assets, I own my home. Actually my father gave it to me but since it is in my name it is mine/my asset. Funny thing? SSI sent me to a doctor to gauge the lupus & fibro, later I checked the doctor on the internet & turns out she specializes in physical rehab and hasn't any rheumatology background lol.
Eh don't mind me I'm just a bit worried over money this week. I let someone I'd worked with a few years ago stay with me & she swiped my meds!! Yeah I'm kicking her out tomorrow.

Etc.
Eeep I am sorry for the hijack, rant, whatever you want to call it but gods I am frustrated!

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RE: When staying alive means going bankrupt - 8/15/2007 4:55:07 PM   
KMsAngel


Posts: 17415
Joined: 4/13/2007
Status: offline 		suddenly very grateful for a free medicare system (well tax paid, but ...) and the private health insurance i have which only costs me $50 a month. admittedly vy basic care and ambulance, but for $170 or so a month i ccould have top care. shit. this could be expensive to move back even for a little while. how much does it cost if u have pre-existing med condition?

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RE: When staying alive means going bankrupt - 8/15/2007 4:56:19 PM   
camille65


Posts: 5746
Joined: 7/11/2007
From: Austin Texas
Status: offline 		It is typically a 9-12 month waiting period for pre existing conditions.

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RE: When staying alive means going bankrupt - 8/15/2007 4:56:31 PM   
Sinergy


Posts: 9383
Joined: 4/26/2004
Status: offline 		 
Been there, done that, bought the tshirt.

What kept me going was the knowledge that it was up to me to pick myself up, dust myself off, bandage
the damage, and keep doing what I needed to do to live longer than the problem.

Sinergy

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RE: When staying alive means going bankrupt - 8/15/2007 4:57:57 PM   
bandit25


Posts: 3029
Joined: 6/18/2005
Status: offline 		I wouldn't give up.  Hey, if $70 is too much, renegotiate with the hospital and lower the monthly amount.  As long as you are paying something, there's not much they can do.  I sympathize with you.  Nothing to be sorry about.  It's bad enough being sick, but to have to worry about money too?  Screw that!

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RE: When staying alive means going bankrupt - 8/15/2007 5:12:57 PM   
camille65


Posts: 5746
Joined: 7/11/2007
From: Austin Texas
Status: offline 		 It hadn't occured to me that I could renegotiate it! Can we say 'duh'?
Thankies bandit.
Level I am sorry for the personal hijacking.
*dusts herself off per Sinergys tactic*

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RE: When staying alive means going bankrupt - 8/15/2007 5:55:59 PM   
Level


Posts: 25145
Joined: 3/3/2006
Status: offline 		No need to apologize

_____________________________

Fake the heat and scratch the itch
Skinned up knees and salty lips
Let go it's harder holding on
One more trip and I'll be gone

~~ Stone Temple Pilots

(in reply to camille65)
Profile   Post #: 12
RE: When staying alive means going bankrupt - 8/15/2007 7:36:50 PM   
sublimelysensual


Posts: 298
Joined: 7/25/2005
Status: offline 		As to the OP..Sometimes you just can't win, situations like that make me ill just thinking about them.
 
camille, I can completely relate. My daughter receives SSI and is on medicaid. I'm in the job market now and one of my biggest fears is exceeding the income limits for medicaid for her. Nine to twelve months of bills (I'll use 9 just so it's not quite so scary)..3 Dr's appts at about 500 a pop, one annual checkup at about 1500, and the really fun part, her monthly meds- 5000 a month. I'd be looking at roughly 50,000, assuming she doesn't have an exacerbation. (I won't even go into the bills involved with that.)So you get through the waiting period, and then you get to worry about the million dollar cap most policies carry. We'd be lucky to make it ten years. I know universal healthcare has it's problems, but I have to say, it looks pretty tempting to me when I start thinking about things like this too much..
 
-a

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RE: When staying alive means going bankrupt - 8/15/2007 8:13:42 PM   
Owned1


Posts: 847
Joined: 7/6/2005
From: Toronto, Ontario
Status: offline 		HI All,

I am in Canada, Ontario,  I thank goodness for universal health care every day.  Not only do I work in health care but myself and my family use it.  There is no second guessing should I go to the Doc just because I don't have the money to pay for it.  The biggest problem I see with universal health care is the abuse of it by citizens.  I wish more of them would read yours and others stories and learn to appreciate what we have before we lose it.

I am sorry to hear the financial problems many of you have as a result of medical problems, however if you look at the glass as half full you are alive and able to talk about the problems.  There are people in the world who do not have basic health care even if they could pay for it.

Owned

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RE: When staying alive means going bankrupt - 8/15/2007 8:34:32 PM   
FangsNfeet


Posts: 3758
Joined: 12/3/2004
Status: offline 		The medical field is a business. Every chemist, MD, pharmacist, and maufacturing CEO aren't in this business to get thank you notes and pats on the back. Most may like helping people, but they all love living in a manson and driving high priced sports cars. Hospitals and clinics are not charitys. Everyone wants there piece of the pie. 

Every notice how most illness and disease is delt with treatment / prevention medication plans but rarely cured? Why would anyone want to cure AIDS, diabetes, cancer, and high blood pressure when you can charge a person every day of his life to take pills?

When you decide to live forever, life will come at a high cost. The ones who are selling life know this and will suck out every cent they can get. Money comes first and no one in the medical field who has ever attended a budget board meeting can contest it. Even in the medicine, the same business rules apply. Minimal effort/expense for maximum profit.

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RE: When staying alive means going bankrupt - 8/15/2007 9:51:30 PM   
caitlyn


Posts: 3473
Joined: 12/22/2004
Status: offline 		My foster parents paid for high quality health insurance for years, and live a very healthy lifestyle. My foster mother had a stroke last year and was in the hospital for quite some time. The insurance company paid like a slot machine. After getting out of the hospital she stayed healthy for a while, getting home health, etc ... but after 48 days, had another series of serious strokes. My understanding is that once you have had a stroke, you vastly increase your chances of having more.
 
The insurance company was able to classify these additional strokes as due to a pre-existing condition, because they fell more than thirty days after the discharge date. They ended up paying only a percentage of the hospital stay and almost none of the extensive and costly follow-up care.
 
Our share are well into six-figures. We are very fortunate to be a family with a lot of resources. Most are not so lucky. The skilled nursing costs blow me away ... they bill more than fifteen times what the nurse makes.
 
We must have universal healthcare in this country, and remove "our health for profit" from the table. It's an American sickness, fed by our illness.

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I wish I could buy back ...
the woman you stole.

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RE: When staying alive means going bankrupt - 8/15/2007 9:59:31 PM   
Alhazred


Posts: 134
Joined: 7/31/2007
Status: offline 		Yer right.

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RE: When staying alive means going bankrupt - 8/15/2007 10:03:24 PM   
SugarMyChurro


Posts: 1912
Joined: 4/26/2007
Status: offline
quote:

ORIGINAL: caitlyn
The insurance company was able to classify these additional strokes as due to a pre-existing condition, because they fell more than thirty days after the discharge date. They ended up paying only a percentage of the hospital stay and almost none of the extensive and costly follow-up care.


This is the stuff of which the movie "Sicko" was made. People think they are covered, and they should be covered, but it's actually someone's job to make sure they get financially screwed instead. Why? Because healthcare is run for profit by middlemen.

BTW, I feel its necessary to clarify that I don't personally begrudge doctors, nurses, etc a decent or even lavish lifestyle. Healthcare is hard work. It takes a lot to become a doctor or surgeon and it takes a lot to stay one also. Every year they have to fulfill ongoing educational requirements. It's stressful work and sometimes even brutally so. I have no problem with brain surgeons living almost like rock stars.

What irks me is the middleman insurance ponzi scheme that's been laid on top of the perfectly reasonable and very hard labor of others. What is the added value of making sure the insurance companies make a profit? What real work do they provide?



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RE: When staying alive means going bankrupt - 8/15/2007 10:13:32 PM   
popeye1250


Posts: 18104
Joined: 1/27/2006
From: New Hampshire
Status: offline
quote:

ORIGINAL: caitlyn

My foster parents paid for high quality health insurance for years, and live a very healthy lifestyle. My foster mother had a stroke last year and was in the hospital for quite some time. The insurance company paid like a slot machine. After getting out of the hospital she stayed healthy for a while, getting home health, etc ... but after 48 days, had another series of serious strokes. My understanding is that once you have had a stroke, you vastly increase your chances of having more.
 
The insurance company was able to classify these additional strokes as due to a pre-existing condition, because they fell more than thirty days after the discharge date. They ended up paying only a percentage of the hospital stay and almost none of the extensive and costly follow-up care.
 
Our share are well into six-figures. We are very fortunate to be a family with a lot of resources. Most are not so lucky. The skilled nursing costs blow me away ... they bill more than fifteen times what the nurse makes.
 
We must have universal healthcare in this country, and remove "our health for profit" from the table. It's an American sickness, fed by our illness.


Caitlyn, well said.
We're the only Western country without a National Healthcare Plan.

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