August Financial Update – How am I supposed to pay for this surgery?
As promised:
| Debt | June 3, 2011 | August 12, 2011* | Difference | Credit Union Visa | 6049.14 | 5878.02 | -171.12 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Credit Union Loan | 4930.93 | 4670.37 | -260.56 |
| Amazon Chase | – | 1653.00 | – | Perkins Loan | 2564.06 | 2464.72 | -99.34 |
| Nelnet | 12632.51 | 12519.60 | -112.91 |
| Total | 26176.64 | 27185.71 | +1009.07** |
Here’s is my updated financials chart, as promised. Some good, some bad, as noted below.
Unfortunately, it’s about to look a whole lot worse. I did not add any of the pending medical bills because at this point I only have rough estimates of what those are going to be. I was told that my portion of the surgery costs is going to be $6175, less some mysterious discount but “we won’t know what that will be until we submit for payment.” Given that I just received my explanation of benefits for the ER visit, and the discount listed on that sheet was a big fat whopping ZERO, I’m going forward assuming the whole $6,175 is going to be mine. This does not include the aforementioned ER visit (and it’s expensive lab tests and ultrasound), of which my “insurance” is covering approximately $300. Nor does it include the pre or post-op visits to the surgeon. Not to mention any additional costs that might arise should I need to see my own physician to get clearance for returning to roller derby in a month or more. In any case, the number is probably going to land somewhere between $7500 and $8000 if my estimates are correct. Ouch.
I’ll be honest here. I haven’t got the slightest clue how I’m going to manage to pay for this. Trying to figure it out feels a whole lot like trying to figure out single premium immediate annuity rates. (I don’t even know what that means!) In other words, I’m kind of panicking over here. After I make the required payments on loans and credit cards, and set aside utility payments and the gas/food budget… I have $4.01 out of one paycheck and a whopping $42.91 out of the other. Not going to get very far at that rate.
My first plan of attack is to cancel the cable. I’m talking both TV and internet here. The TV portion of my Comcast bill is about as low as I can get it, and canceling just that raises the internet price, so I wouldn’t save much money without canceling both. That should free up between $75-80 a month. Honestly, Internet generally feels like a necessity in my life, but at this point I don’t see any way I can leave it on. Prior to the gallbladder attack, I was starting to consider making this change for awhile anyway… I was hoping to put that $80 towards one of my loans and pay it off faster.
I do have an iPhone though, so the ability to access Facebook and my email from that will just have to do for awhile. I considered moving to a cheaper phone without a data plan and keeping the internet, but I’m still under contract for two more months. Plus with the internet options available in my area, it seems like the savings would be a wash either way. And at least with the phone, I have my internet in my pocket and not only when I’m at home.
Beyond that, I don’t really know. Maybe I should start a chip-in… do you want to help me pay for my surgery? LOL I’ve admittedly been a bit lax in my budgeting lately, so I’m cracking down on that. Going back to “snowflaking” religiously rather than letting any extra from categories coming in under budget just fritter away somewhere. I keep an eye on the job ads, but it seems like everything that pays more than my current job doesn’t offer enough hours, and everything that is part-time/less than my current job is something that wouldn’t work as a second job. I’m at a loss. And really stressed out. I guess I’m going to pay what I can and hope it all works out. I don’t know what else to do.
*Even though the date is nearly halfway through August, balances do not necessarily include August payments. Many of those were just made today as I logged into these accounts to check balances.
** The thousand dollar jump in the total is due to the fact that I decided to finally quit pretending that I didn’t have a balance on the Amazon card, or that I was going to be paying it off so quickly that it didn’t matter anyway. With a number of purchases that could no longer be put off, as well as my changing financial situation, this card is turning out to be my “emergency fund” of sorts and is therefore still in use and not likely to be paid off anytime soon. Therefore, it earns itself a spot in the table even though the balance jumps around quite a bit.
August 12th, 2011 at 2:39 pm
Check with the hospital to see if they have any kind of plan where your bills can be reduced based on your income. The hospitals near me do this, and I believe most do, although the income limits (which are often based on some multiple of the poverty level) will certainly vary. My sister’s boyfriend was in an accident and needed a few thousand dollars of medical care, but he doesn’t make much and had absolutely NO idea how he’d begin to pay it off. Turns out that his income was below the limits, so his bills were reduced to almost nothing (once he brought it up with the hospital, which took some legwork and paperwork). Even if you think you make too much to qualify, you may be able to have your bills reduced by a certain percentage. I don’t know if your hospital will do this, but you might have to look pretty hard for it – it’s definitely not the kind of thing they advertise.
August 18th, 2011 at 6:31 pm
This might sound like a tough time, but follow the previous writers advise. don’t be afraid that you may have to “warm” a few benches while you wait. Be positive, persist! Also I don’t know how you feel about working for the Govn’t but look aroud for some jobs at say the T S A I feel there will be a lot of openings real soon. Not hard to track on the web.Again be positive. Frank
September 8th, 2011 at 8:20 am
I am not a fan of Obama care but i currently live in a country with universal healthcare and it really is great. in 2008 i had a heart attack and i may have paid about $20 out of my pocket.I had excellent care i get to see a cardiologist for about $2 every 6 months