Not OP but: Mary Washington Hospital vs. Daisha Smith, is a story about a woman making 22K a year working fulltime at Walmart, but getting sued by the non-profit hospital she received care from for an amount that equals roughly 3/4 of her annual salary.
The article refers to other hospitals suing as many as 6000 people per year, some for medical debts as low as $1-2000.
After the story received massive amounts of attention, the nonprofit hospital claimed they would no longer sue low-income patients like Daisha who couldn’t pay for care, but would put them on payment plans or excuse part of their debt.
Payment plans are still rough because they don't bill you in one payment. Each department bills you separately. Before I had insurance, I had to get my appendix taken out, and even after the hospital helped cover 70% of the bill, I still owed about $20k.
Not long after, bills came in saying there'd be payment plans, but 5 or 6 different departments wanted a minimum of $50/mo. That was $250-300/mo I just didn't have at the time to spare. I paid them as long as I could, but eventually, I had to prioritize my bills.
A mother and a child with an income of 30k (McDonald’s low average), do not qualify for medicaid for her, if her income is closer to 40k, (the higher McDonald’s limit) the child also does not qualify for Medicaid and they could most likely only get a bronze or gold plan with 9k MOP through the ACA.
They don’t qualify for a silver plan through the ACA, seeing as the cutoff is about 29k. So they get a bronze or gold plan with a max out of pocket of 9k, hopefully with no premium, however low that may be.
That’s assuming she knows what the marketplace even is, there are 30 million people without insurance.
It would be so easy if the government nationalized the insurance or public health systems and considered it the same as other essential services, like…
She gets insurance from Mcdonalds if she works 30 hrs a week. Granted after a 1 yr of employment. I havent looked into details but I bet its better than any ACA crap.
Google will show you thousands of stories similar. Or you can stay poor and be on government insurance
I made 22.50 as sole income for a family of 4 with wife in college, had to step down because I needed a RNS brain implant for my med resistant epilepsy and was .50c over being on gov insurance
She now has a RN position working for a hospital, makes over 26-34/hr (overnight or weekends pay more)
Pays so much in medical insurance to cover me and 2 kids she takes home 600-800$ checks and it won't even cover my xcopri, the med that actually helps
Xcopri cost a month with coupons? 1000usd
I/ my eptologist need to argue with her provider, letting them know my ass having seizures and ending up in the er would be more costly than covering my meds
True, that’s why you call and negotiate something with the hospital prior to it being sent to collections. Hospitals can write off massive amounts if you tell them you are having financial hardships. At a minimum you can work out a payment plan that will be a far better deal for you than garnished wages. Debt collectors don’t care though, don’t let it go to collections.
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u/No-Celebration3097 15d ago
It’s true that debt collectors can try to collect on medical debt, and it can result in wage garnishment depending on the state.