The Avalanche begins

I just got a call from the pre-registration department of the hospital. After playing 20 questions, the guy on the phone says (in one long unbroken breath) "you'll need to pay your remaining deductible and that's $486.17, how would you like to pay that?" I paused and told him we weren't expecting to have to pay that right now. He said "you can set up payment arrangements with the front desk upon check in." Wow!

The medical bills have already started rolling in and I haven't even had my surgery yet! How does anyone afford Cancer? We just received a bill from the hospital last week for the pathology and lab work in the amount of $580.00. Thankfully my husband does have insurance and they should pay 80% of the upcoming medical bills but there are no guarantees. Insurance companies drop Cancer patients every day along with people suffering from other long term illnesses.

I'm not a proponent of socialized medicine or "Obamacare" but what do people do when they have no way to pay for their medical bills? Do they just claim medical bankruptcy? Do they self treat at home? Do they forego treatment all together? Do they set up minimum payments on long term payment plans that could last for a decade or more?

It's sad that Cancer patients have to have the added stress of medical bills in conjunction with all the other stressors they face on a daily basis. There should be concessions that hospitals and insurance companies could make to help alleviate some of the monetary burden upon patients. It's hard enough to deal with the agony of a devastating medical diagnosis, surgery, treatments, pain, emotional turmoil and then on top of all that have to deal with medical woes...it's enough to kill a person. Maybe that's what they're trying to do to keep from having to pay out large claims...HMMMM????

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