Bankruptcy Due To Medical Bills

If you have experienced extreme financial hardship due to medical bills, you’re not alone. Thousands of people each year suffer financial distress for a number of reasons, including getting behind on regular payments, car payments, house utilities, and medical bills.

Medical bills account for as much as 50% of overall credit card and total debt of Americans alone, and this puts added stress on families who are already stressed and stretched to the extreme. Some are being laid off from jobs, as well as a number of other factors which are added to the issues.

How It Can Happen

With all of the changes to medical and health insurance issues, it has come more to our attention how medical expenses can pile up and overwhelm someone before they realize what has happened. Let’s say you are “between health insurance,” like a lot of people were before the federal mandate came into being, where many were not covered by a regular insurance policy. Let’s say you are driving along one day on a country road and are hit by an oncoming truck, putting you in the hospital for 3 weeks. How will you pay for the hospital bills? The doctors’ fees? The treatment and the medications as you recover? If you don’t have insurance, you will pay for this out of your own pocket!

How It Is Usually Handled

When people cannot afford to handle their own medical bills, hospitals and clinics will often put the person on a payment plan to pay it out over several months. But the amounts are often so overwhelming that no one can handle the monthly installments, even though a payment plan has been worked out. So what do you do?

There has always been a stereotype about bankruptcy, more on that here. This is because it is considered by some an option which should not be considered. Yet, for some, it is the only solution that makes sense, given the overwhelming amount of medical bills which are looming over their heads. Should you file bankruptcy? Here are a few points to think about if you are considering it, based on your situation with your medical bills.

To File Or Not To File?

1. Do you have medical bills with which there is no way for you to pay, even on a monthly basis?
2. Are you being denied medical help due to your previous medical bills?
3. Are you struggling with other financial areas of your life, which are adding to the unpaid medical debts?
4. Do you find it hard to get medical insurance due to the past debts?
5. Do you have a continuing medical condition which requires care?

IF you answered “yes” to any or all of these questions, you need help and you should consider the idea of filing bankruptcy to clear some of this debt and get collectors off your back. In addition, many people who file bankruptcy may be eligible for special programs which will allow them to recoup their debt in a way they can live with, while getting the medical help they need now. Let’s face it. You really cannot go on without adequate medical coverage and keep letting the debt go unpaid. There could be even more severe civil and perhaps even criminal issues facing you if you allow the debt to go unpaid.

A Different Way Of Solving The Problem

Think of bankruptcy as a “clean start,” not a dead-end road. It is not the end of the road. It is for people who got in a bind and who need help to be lifted back up. An experienced bankruptcy attorney will help you start to live again and get the debt forgiven and get collectors off your back.