The Root of All Evil

[american_arcane]

Originally published at Durosia.com. You can comment here or there.

I'm not at all shy about mentioning the ridiculous amount of debt I got myself into.

Mostly because that year living on couches and on credit cards was a big learning experience. And the three years that came after, where I was working a job that wasn't covering my bills, leading to

Comments

[kelowna]

Work doesn't cover the hospital?

I am not incredibly politically savvy but I don't see why Socialism is such an awful word in the US.

I've had a number of tests done at the hospital recently. Visible cost to me? 0$ (except resulting prescriptions, which, when I was a full time employee was free save the dispensing fee at the pharmacy).

I think taking care of the health of the US citizen should be a top priority.

Sorry you are having this struggle. Let us hope it is temporary and things sort themselves out quick!

--k

[american_arcane]

Work (thankfully) covers the cost of insurance (which is over $250/month).

Insurance covers, well, whatever it feels like and leaves the rest to me.

This whole thing is now well over $1000 more than I expected to pay. There are phone calls to be made to make sure my expectations were, indeed, in error.

There wasn't much doubt in my mind before that the US health care system was broken. Now I'm absolutely positive of it. If I didn't have the big fancy insurance that I do, there's no way I'd ever be able to afford proper treatment for anything of consequence. In this case, the meat around my joints would probably still be swollen.

I don't know how people who actually get sick regularly deal with this... :(

Things will sort themselves out. They always do.

Besides, it really doesn't matter that much--it's not like I've got anything that can be taken away for non-payment. That's one of the benefits of not owning anything of note (like houses, cars, land, etc.). ;)

[ford_prefect42]

Socialism is a dirty word because, like most problems, if you scratch this one to determine root causes, you will find government faster than you would believe.

I agree that the system is broken, but if we instead of knee-jerking a solution, determine what broke it, there is no way to avoid the fact that government broke it. It is therefore not a long leap to say that government is probably not the right tool to fix it. But that's just me.

[kelowna]

Then what is the right tool to fix it?

Knee jerk may not be the way to go -- but as far as I can tell, as a citizen, the Canadian health care system isn't doing too badly for their citizens.

--k

[ford_prefect42]

Been there, done that.

Best advice if things are as bad as you say... stop paying anything (rent and utilities ONLY)(NO CONS, no clubs, no fun in this budget). Save ALL your money in a sock for a while (6 months). until your creditors are looking to settle. Settle with the moneys you didn't pay them over the 6 months. DON'T DO IT AGAIN!

But that's just my $.02 do what you think is right for you, you are your own master, no other has any say at all.

[american_arcane]

A credit counselor wouldn't do me all that much good as there's very very little they could tell me that I don't already know and/or do.

Now, services that actually work with the places I owe money to (like what maroonmd and eriss mentioned below)... that could be useful.

When I have money, I'm actually pretty darn good with it. I just haven't had any real money in a very long time.

[sidhebat]

Be a thorn in the side of the hospital and the insurance company. Insurance companies refuse to pay bills, expecting no complaints from most people. Squeaky wheels can get a little more grease from them. If you have to pay out of pocket, be sure that you are paying the hospital what the insurance companies pay - it's much less than the out-of-pocket price (for example, liver biopsy out-of-pocket: $7,000. total cost when an insurance company picks up the entire bill: $900)

What the red scare types don't realize is that they can still have their bloated overpriced private health care as an alternative to the bloated and slow national health system - the difference is that getting a chronic or potentially fatal illness while unemployed/a student/working retail wouldn't mean staying unemployed, quitting work/school, or dying if we had some sort of safety net.

Good luck!

Ouch

[mischief_bound]

I wish you the best of luck. I know it is not easy and can be very stressful. I think most of us have been down that road in our life. I am still paying off wedding/college but I do what I can.

I did have to cut out all the fun stuff though and I ate a lot of peanut butter and jelly for lunch. Look at your budget and see if there is anything that you can cut back.