"Please pay within 30 days"...uh..yeah, okay..

Hi Calamtykel,

I have no words of wisdom, just wanted to commiserate. My husband and I have high deductibles ($3500 each) and have met them this year, and I have outstanding dental bills and bills from the plastic surgeon. A new bill for my dh's colonoscopy came in today-all while we are sending our daughter off to her first year of college ($$$$$$). I don't know how we'll cover it all. My plan is to send in partial payment on each bill.

Next year our deductibles go up to $4000. I told my husband that we can't get sick.

Best wishes,

Catherine

Your stories make me very glad I live in Canada.  My hospital bills are all covered and my work insurance has covered all of my other expenses of drugs and whatnot. I must add, however, that my husband and I have an outstanding benefit package through our employer that is difficult to match.  I have been on LTD since February.  I do not understand how so many of you ladies deal with the stress of having cancer and the financial worries/concerns that go with it. I know I couldn't handle it!  Best of luck.

Many hospitals have funds available to cut the charges for those with financial need. Never hurts to ask. I had a friend with a high deductible policy who had an ectopic pregnancy. Her husband met with someone from the hospital and they basically cut the charges in half. And they they paid it a bit at a time.

Try to see if you can get Hill-Burton funds www.hrsa.gov 1-800 638-0742.

And in some states (NY is one but I don't know about others) hospitals are REQUIRED to give you a payment plan if you ask them for one, whether you qualify for any financial aid or not; they cannot legally refuse. And there may be a limit to how much interest they can charge (if any) on such a payment plan.

However, in NY that "must give a payment plan" law only applies to bills sent directly to the patient from a hospital; individual doctors, practices, labs, etc are not required to set up payment plans.

YMWV depending on what state you live in. 

Contact Livestrong and register with the SurvivorCare program.  They will set you up with an intake counselor with Patient Advocate Foundation and there may be some help with out of pocket expenses.  They have helped a lot of people, unfortunately I was not one because too much time had elapsed since I was diagnosed.

It truly sucks to survive cancer only to lose everything else.  There are too many of us who fall in between the cracks of available social programs.

I hope you find someone to help you.