With the advancements in the technology and medicines, the life span of a human being has also increased. This has happened due to the amount of growth a human being has in the field of medicine. There is almost no disease which cannot be cured.
Though any disease can be cured, but the cost of medicines and treatments is on the higher side which a middle class person cannot afford without taking loan or insurance. People have huge medical debts if in case they face health problems in their family. In such cases, people go for credit card debt relief.
What is Medical Debt?
Medical debt is the debt caused due to incurring various medical and health care expenses. The medical problems already keep a person in stress and the medical debt adds on to the stress. Therefore, the debt consolidation can be done to avoid heavy stress. You may also opt for credit card debt consolidation to avoid the stress caused.
How should you deal with medical debt?
- Negotiate – yes. Even the profitable hospitals can be negotiated with for the medical bills. When you receive the bill, immediately cross check the areas for which they have charged and wherever possible, try to negotiate with the hospital authorities.
- When you become late in paying the medical debt, even the hospitals transfer the case to the collection agency and the collection agency directly puts your case in a negative way. Once your case goes to the collection agency, you have already ruined your image. If this happens and you had to pay the debt to the collection agency, do not hesitate in bargaining with them too.
- If you have to finance yourself for paying the medical debt, choose the financial services wisely. You should select the interest rates as per the service providers who charge the lowest rate of interest. You may also go for taking a personal loan to pay off your medical bills.
- Declaring yourself bankrupt is an option. If your medical bill exceeds your annual salary by 50 – 100%, then it is ok to file for bankruptcy. Before declaring bankrupt, you should inform the hospital about this, in such cases, the hospitals might reduce the total amount to be paid rather than getting nothing after filing for bankruptcy. Thus your medical bill can be reduced but only in the cases where the salary is less.
- Buying health insurance is a very wise and good decision. The health insurance takes care of almost all types of medical debts and bills. The health insurance will also provide you support in case of You just have to pay the insurance premiums regularly.
Conclusion
Medical debt is a thing which nobody would want to have in their lives. But the reality is that medical expenses can occur anytime in anyone’s life and the expenses can be huge. So, it is better that you should be prepared by taking health insurance rather than paying the medical debts.