Medical Bills and Medical Debt - A $140 Billion Problem. What Can You Do?
Welcome to Saving Money with Andrew!
Medical debt is a huge issue. If you’re reading this, there’s a good chance you’ve had medical debt, and you almost certainly know one of the over 100 million Americans who owe $140 billion of medical debt.
Tradeoffs, one of my favorite podcasts, had a fantastic episode recently about the depth of the problem here in the US. I highly recommend listening, but the episode disappointingly leaves the listener without much of a practical toolkit for dealing with large unexpected medical bills or medical debt in general. Here are a few tips for avoiding this debt in the first place, or dealing with it once you have it.
Save Money on Prescriptions With Discount Programs and Generic Options
In Saving Money On Prescription Drugs, I wrote about some strategies for saving money on expensive prescription medication. Specifically, you can often save money by using your insurer’s preferred mail-order pharmacy to get a 90-day supply of medication, and also investigate copay assistance or other coupon programs. Also, for many medications, generic versions are often available at a significant discount to the name brand.
Save Money on Surprise Hospital Bills
Whenever a family member enters a hospital, I feel like we’re rolling the dice. Inevitably, within a month or two of the visit, we start receiving random bills from various providers, ranging from a few dollars to significantly more. Fortunately, our insurance is good and it is rare (though not unheard of) for us to receive a large surprise bill.
If you’re on the receiving end of a large surprise bill, I wrote about some of my favorite tips in Saving Money on Hospital Bills. My biggest discovery? For many hospitals, you may qualify for various “charity care” or discount programs even with a household income as high as $100,000 or so.
Finally, Be Ready To Negotiate
In healthcare, many things are (surprisingly) negotiable. In Saving Money On Unexpected Medical Bills, I wrote about our experience with a surprise $4,000 medical bill. After multiple unsuccessful appeals with our insurance company, we reached out directly to the company. After some discussion, they offered to file an appeal with our insurance company on our behalf and, if it was unsuccessful, to offer us an 80% discount if we’d pay promptly. In the end, we never heard back, so it appears their appeal was successful.
For some additional tips, I recommend this post from First Aid Kit. And if you have any tips, I’d love to hear from you!
And now, Andrew’s pick(s) of the week:
I had no idea I would enjoy The Great Pottery Throw Down (on HBO Max) as much as I have. The format is refreshing—the stakes are high, but not that high. And the contestants are competitive and driven, but in a friendly and non-confrontational way unlike any other reality show competition I’ve ever watched. Relaxing and fun TV.
A great 2 minute video if you’re a Beatles fan: “Here’s why Tomorrow Never Knows (1966) is possibly the most revolutionary pop song in history”
A great list of common misconceptions, many of which I believed before reading this.
Finally, if you are a musician, I highly recommend George Collier’s YouTube channel, which features awesome transcribed and annotated excerpts from virtuosic, famous, and sometimes just downright strange musical performances.
I hope this has been helpful. If you liked it, please share it on social media! Also, please send me your feedback, requests, and success stories.