Get on Top of Debt: Pay Your Bills

One of the biggest problems facing everyday folks in the US is medical insurance. This is especially true in the absence of the personal mandate for Obamacare. Now that there are no longer any tax penalties in place, the IRS cannot punish folks for not having health coverage as from 2019. However, when medical emergencies strike, the costs are extortionary. It is extraordinary how big a problem medical debt is in the US. You may not know it, but medical-related debts are one of the primary courses of bankruptcy in the US. It is generally perceived that people fall into all sorts of financial problems owing to financial mismanagement. Quite the contrary; it is those unexpected debts like an emergency room visit, or a surgical procedure that can often put you out of pocket and cause tremendous financial hardship.

You may be contemplating bankruptcy as a solution for your medical debts, but that should only be considered as a last resort. If you decide to file Chapter 7 bankruptcy, you will be able to get rid of your medical debts and various unsecured debts like personal loans and credit cards, and you’ll get to keep your property. However, your credit score will take a hit. Believe it or not, the Affordable Care Act did not provide a workable solution for Affordable Health Care Coverage. Since 2015, health insurance costs have spiked astronomically. In the US, the per capita expenditure on healthcare is thousands of dollars. This may seem like a positive, but it is in fact a negative.

The US is not the #1 ranking country in terms of health care coverage – it is #12. Unfortunately, most people don’t even have $500 available to them for an emergency that may crop up. This is a blight upon society in the world’s richest country. According to the Kaiser Health Tracking Poll from 2017, 45% of people in the US cannot afford to pay a $500 medical bill, and a whopping 1 in 5 people would put that type of bill on their credit card. Unfortunately, this just adds more debt to the burgeoning debt in society. These statistics do precious little to assuage the concerns of those who don’t have medical coverage. Many self-employed people don’t have the funds necessary to pay between $500 and $1,000 per month for health care coverage. On the bright side, people under 65 are generally healthier today than they were years ago. This means that there are fewer medical bill problems to contend with.

What Are Some of the Ways You Can Eradicate High Medical Bills?

Leading debt resource, DebtConsolidation.com published a comprehensive set of 18 solutions to help eradicate medical debt. According to author Daniel Wesley, approximately 1 million bankruptcies are declared every year in the United States. Some 26% of US citizens and residents between the ages of 18 & 64 are battling with the repayment of medical bills. That amounts to an incredible 52 million adults. With so many millions of people struggling to repay their medical bills, solutions are desperately needed. With respect to hospital debt, it is difficult to make payments worth thousands of dollars. This can adversely affect your credit, and if you make a past-due payment, you will be penalized in the process.

Your credit score will take a hit and you may have to file bankruptcy. This will exonerate you from any debt obligations, but your credit rating will be severely impacted. Hospital financial assistance can be beneficial in many ways. You can request a bill reduction, ask for forgiveness to erase the invoice, or negotiate a 0% repayment plan. Your ability to negotiate repayment of your debt will go a long way towards decreasing your debt burden. If you have cash in hand, try repaying your debts in cash especially if you don’t have insurance. There are many other ways that you may wish to consider, and it is certainly worth your while reading this comprehensive article on managing your medical debts effectively.