If you’ve faced a medical emergency and have been left with huge hospital bills, you may be wondering how you’ll ever be able to pay if off. Regardless of your health insurance coverage and status, medical bills can be extremely expensive, and no matter how much you’re making, they can easily lead to financial disaster.
Despite the looming danger that medical bills pose, there are reliable solutions for finding help with medical bills, quickly and easily. Many people lose their homes, suffer damaged credit scores or even declare bankruptcy over unpaid medical bills simply because they didn’t know about that financial assistance for medical bills is available. Avoid making this mistake by reading our top tips for receiving medical financial assistance:
Contact Your Health Insurance Company
If you have health insurance, you don’t always have to treat the medical bills you receive in the mail as a done deal. In fact, many insurance companies are open to medical bill negotiation. Once you’ve explained your tough financial situation (and especially if you have annual earnings that meet or are below the national poverty line) you may be able to negotiate lower amounts for your required monthly payments, or even total amount owed. Even if your health insurance company can’t reduce the money you owe, they may be able to negotiate an extended repayment plan for your unpaid hospital bills, which could make repaying what’s owed much more manageable.
Directly Contact Your Hospital
Directly contacting your hospital is particularly important if you don’t have health insurance. Without health insurance, pretty much any hospital visit is guaranteed to cost thousands (or even tens of thousands) of dollars, which virtually nobody can afford to repay on their own. Depending on your annual income and what state you live in, you may be able to have your bill either dramatically reduced or even completely erased due to your uninsured and low earning status.
However, to get approval for reduced payments or reducing your medical debt, you usually have to talk directly with your hospital (and sometimes social services as well) to get it all sorted out. What’s more, many hospitals will reduce the money you owe if you agree to pay it either immediately after treatment or a short time after (usually within 30 days). When you can’t afford to pay your medical bill, the last thing you probably want to do is to get in touch with your hospital, but you may be surprised at how much they can assist you with paying off your debt.
Seek Charitable Assistance
If you’re uninsured and your hospital isn’t able to reduce your bills to a level that you can afford, you may want to seek out charitable assistance. There are many charitable organizations that assist underprivileged and low income individuals and families, especially those who need medical bill assistance. Charities such as the Patient Advocate Foundation helps people negotiate and mediate unpaid medical bills, providing grants and other financial assistance to those who qualify for their programs.
Contact charities who may be able to provide financial assistance with medical bills, or who may at least be able to help teach you how to negotiate medical bills, or even negotiate a better repayment deal on your behalf. You may find the idea of reaching out for charities a tad humiliating, but it’s an option worth exploring if it means you can get out of debt and get back on your feet. Remember, virtually no one is prepared to pay for the kinds of costs that hospital and medical companies are charging these days, and don’t feel ashamed about reaching out for help.
Make a Repayment Plan
Perhaps you earn a decent income and are relatively financially stable, but you’re simply having problems paying medical bills because they’ve spiraled far out of control. If this is the case, you may not be able to reach out to charities or get as much of a break when it comes to renegotiating your medical debt and you might be forced to make lifestyle changes to free up budget for timely repayments of your medical debt. Unfortunately, there just aren’t that many programs offering people with big incomes financial assistance with medical bills.
Look at your monthly expenses and analyze where you can cut back, especially for things like coffee, eating out or entertainment. This may mean you need to cancel some of your monthly memberships and subscriptions or even temporarily move into cheaper lodgings, but paying off your bill in a timely member may be within your reach if you are willing to make enough financial sacrifices, and then you’ll never have to worry about speaking with debt collectors again. It may not be easy, but it will without a doubt beat being haunted by excessive medical bills for years (or even decades) to come.
Ask Family Members for Help
If you haven’t already, it’s probably time to ask your family members or even friends for help paying hospital bills, even though it’s something you would rather avoid. Your family will more than likely have your best interest at heart, and understand why you are struggling to repay your medical bills. If you haven’t been able to line up medical bills assistance from the insurance companies, hospitals or non-profits, then who else do you have to turn to but family and friends?
Offer to pay them back once you’ve regained your financial footing, and if you think you can afford it, suggest that you’ll repay the amount they helped with, plus interest. Know that asking for money from family and friends can lead to difficult situations, and cause relationship problems, but if you’ve already tried everything else, then don’t hesitate to reach out for help. Would you rather leave medical bills in collection for another few years, lose your house to foreclosure and have to face filing bankruptcy, or swallow your pride a bit with family and friends?
Consider Taking Out a Short-Term Loan
If you’ve already tried everything else, but still can’t pay your medical bills, it may be time to look into taking out a short-term loan. Taking out a loan to get out of debt may seem ironic, but if you’ve got to the stage where your unpaid medical bills could cause you to lose your home, car or even force you to declare bankruptcy then it’s past time to take immediate action. Unpaid hospital bills shouldn’t result in a life completely ruined by financial devastation, and a variety of options are out there to get you the emergency money you need to make repayments on your debt.
If you’re unable to get approval for a conventional bank loan, it’s time to look elsewhere into collateral loans, and since you’ve likely got bills in collections, you may want to investigate loans for people with poor credit. One great option that you should definitely consider is a car title loan, which provides you the value of your vehicle in exchange for temporary possession of it’s title. As long as you keep making loan repayments on time, you’ll retain the right to use your vehicle, and as soon as you’ve paid off the loan in full, you’ll regain possession of the title. Taking out loans to repay other debt isn’t always the perfect solution, but if you’re only facing temporary financial trouble and you just need a boost of income in the meantime, then it could be just the ticket to getting yourself out of medical or hospital debt for good.
Car Capital Financial
If you’re interested in receiving an affordable, high-quality, hassle-free car title loan, then be sure to contact Car Capital Financial today. We have provided car and other vehicle title loans to Southern California for over 17 years, and we specialize in lending to people with credit problems. Title loans are issued based on your ability to repay the loan.
To speak with a title loans adviser and get the cash you need in as little as 30 minutes, please call us now at 1-888-500-9887.