Choosing Between Medical Debt Consolidation And Forgiveness Needs Time And In-Depth Knowledge

It is true that medical debt will never happen by choice but medical debt relief can. It is also true that the cost for treatment of any sudden illness or an unexpected surgery may cripple your family budget if you do not have proper and prior plans to deal with it and you cannot ignore or do anything about it to avoid.

However, there are several relief programs that will help you to deal with your medical debts and at the same time ease the strain helping you to manage your medical debt more proficiently.

You can choose between medical debt consolidation and forgiveness but to make the right choice between the two you will need to consider several important and influencing factors such as medical debt and costs.

With the implementation of The Affordable Care Act which is better known as “Obama care,” a large number of Americans enrolled in different health insurance plans and policies. However, this Act had nothing to do with the rising medical cost or to slow down the expenditure on healthcare. A few statistical data will help you understand the situation even better. Courtesy the ACA America witnessed the following:

• 9% citizens had a health insurance plan in 2016
• It went up to 91.2% in the beginning of 2017
• However, about $3.3 trillion was spent on healthcare which is about $10,348 for each person
• This figure rose by 18.9% in just five years and
• In the US, healthcare spending accounts for an approximately 17.9% of the entire gross domestic product.

Different surveys and reports also showed that most people had significant trouble while paying off their medical bills especially those people who are already under the burden of credit card loans, personal or auto loans and with mortgages.

• According to the Kaiser Family Foundation reports and New York Times survey, it is found that about 26% of Americans within the age group of 18 to 64 said that they faced huge problems in paying their medical bills.
• The Kaiser Family Foundation study also showed that 52% of all debt collection activities in the US pertained to medical debts.
• It was also found that the medical debts were the primary reason why more than half of the Americans with debts opted for bankruptcy filings.

However, there is nothing to panic in such situations if you have the proper knowledge and a strategic planning. There are several easy and effective options available for dealing you’re your medical bills.

Therefore, if you or someone in your family encounters such a serious condition all you have to do is find out a reliable source from where you can get medical debt relief to ease off the stress and pay off the healthcare provider.

Different debt relief options

You can take help of nationaldebtreliefprograms.com or any other professional debt advisor for that matter to choose between the options such as debt consolidation and debt settlement and others. Here is a brief list of options to help you make the choice easily.

Negotiating medical debt:

Doctors and hospitals often are willing to receive less payment than no payment. They fear that they will lose money if your debt is sent to the collection agency and even pay commission for it. Therefore, they will be more willing to cut a deal with you. It is better that you make sure of the following:

• Negotiate directly with them instead of any agency
• Figure out how much you can pay each month
• Check the new payment plan to see whether or not it matches with your monthly affordability.

Moreover, if you are uninsured, you must ask for the rate that they usually give the insured patients because it is a common practice among doctors and hospitals to give insurance companies a break in fees.

Medical debt consolidation:

Hospitals usually do not charge any interest on the medical bills and therefore if you have paid the bills using you credit card or cards and also have a few debts already existing on those, in that case it this is the most feasible choice as it will not affect your credit in anyways. This approach is much similar to your credit card debt consolidation.

Medicaid:

If you qualify then you can also go for Medicaid that provides help to those struggling to pay their medical bills. It may reduce cost of insurance and even free it especially for the low income individuals. You eligibility for Medicaid will depend on two primary factors namely, your assets and your income. However, there are a few things that you should remember when you opt for Medicaid such as:

• Requirements may vary from one state to another
• You may qualify if your income is below the standard limit set for the Supplemental Security Income or SSI program.

The set limit is $750 per month in “counted income” and in general less than $2,250 per month. However, a few applicants may also qualify if they have an income less than $2,000 per month and $3,000 a month for a couple in assets. This is in cash and account savings and any personal property such as your house or car are usually excluded.

Personal sources:

You may also try out crowd-funding websites to raise money for medical bills. You can also ask your friend and family to help you out in such situations to ease the stress. However, no matter how close a friend or a relative it is, you should treat their financial assistance just as any other loan that you may take from any commercial banks or money lender.

Make sure that you have a formal written agreement on the money loaned and the time and terms for repayment. Ideally, such loans will not carry any interest on it but the fact that these are given on the basis of personal trust makes it very sensitive loan. Failing to repay it on time may strain and even break relationships, which is much costlier than the interest and should not be your interest in the first place.