Please think hard about it before you get an HSA compatible health-insurance plan - Page 2

[NightOwlwithowlet]

Please talk to the hospital about programs for the under insured. Many hospitals, especially the nonprofits, have them. My sister had 75% of her deductible waved because she owed several thousands after emergency surgery. As a hospital employee, I donate money every month toward such a program.

[elephantmargaret]

Oh my goodness. I am so sorry. My DD (21 months) had the same sort of thing last month. With our insurance we are OK but wow our max out of pocket is 3500 but the accident was 12/19 and she was d/c on 1/1. So all the recovery stuff/last day of hospital starts over on a new year so we'll be doing max out of pocket twice I think.

The agony of watching this all play out is soo hard. I haven't found anyone who has gone through this. If you would like to see how it has played out for us you can e-mail me and I'll send you the link to my blog. We're at 6 weeks post burn-5.5 since the skin grafts. We were back today for a check up and to get fitted for a compression shirt. Please hang in there. It was actually a week and a half we were there post grafts and then went home doing some simple dressing changes at home. Please let me know if I can help you at all. This is soooooooo hard. Please feel free to e-mail me about anything. I felt so alone and like I was the only one this had ever happened to. It just took a second....

again hugs

[chaoticzenmom]

Originally Posted by BetsyS

Very OT, but how??

We pay about $12,000 in mortgage interest a year, and it saves us about $1000 on taxes. No where near $20,000.

Do you have a really big mortgage?? A huge income?? How's this work??

We live in a very expensive area, so that's part of it. I did my estimated taxes with our standard deduction and taxes, then compared it with the itemized deductions of mortgage interest and property taxes. The mortgage knocked us down to a lower tax bracket and so we pay a smaller percent. If you're in the lowest bracket and living in a low cost of living area, then it may not be that much of a help. But do those taxes both ways and see.

You had me curious, so I went back and rechecked (it's been a few years and we have another child). With more kids and a 401k contribution, we save less on the mortgage deduction , but it's still pretty substantial, the standard tax of 9362 + 25% of all over 68000. That vs. straight 15% makes a big difference. I think it depends on how many kids you have and how close to the line you are, what other deductions you have, etc.

[chaoticzenmom]

Originally Posted by goldingoddess

OP here, I wanted to thank everyone for their responses. We're still here in the hospital, and they want to do skin graft surgery tomorrow which will keep us here for another week. As time has gone on it has become apparent that money does not matter just my babies health and well-being matter, the money is secondary.

I know the HSA is nice for people who have the money to pay the max out of pocket, which is different then the deductible, our deductible was $5800 which sounded like a manageable number, but the max out-of-pocket is $10,000 wich is very easy to meet with even a short hospitalization. When we got the HSA we thought it would be plenty easy to save enough over two years to have the max out-of-pocket in ou HSA, we are one year in, and in that year a lot happened, like moving cross-country, renting a new house in the 2nd most HCOL in the country (bay area)and having to buy a new car.

I know it works for some people and I'm not saying it is bad for everyone, but I'm just sharing our experience because we thought we would be able to put more in the HSA, but we have only put in ~1600 in the past year and now we are kinda screwed. We would have been so much better off doing a PPO or even a lower deductible HSA compatible insurance.

Thank you everyone for the support and advice. Because of this we will not be putting the debt on a CC and will instead try to do a payment plan with the hospital...if they let us.

If they let you? They have no choice. They don't have to know that you have open credit to pay this. If you send them any money every 30 days, then they can't refer you to collections. If they cash the check anyway. I've heard of people sending 25$ every 30 days and since the check gets cashed, it doesn't go to collections. Most people don't have 10,000 in their pockets. They dont' have a choice except to work with you. Nobody can force you to put something on credit.

[leavemealone]

I've already responded on this thread, but we got to experience this last night. DH was coughing up blood so he went to the ER. They did some chest x-rays, CAT scan, EKG, etc and wanted to admit him, but he refused (not sure why). He just got qualified last week for the state medicaid plan due to our income being so low so at least we have that as secondary insurance and I know it's effective from the date of application but I don't know how it will all work.

[shayinme]

Originally Posted by chaoticzenmom

If they let you? They have no choice. They don't have to know that you have open credit to pay this. If you send them any money every 30 days, then they can't refer you to collections. If they cash the check anyway. I've heard of people sending 25$ every 30 days and since the check gets cashed, it doesn't go to collections. Most people don't have 10,000 in their pockets. They dont' have a choice except to work with you. Nobody can force you to put something on credit.

I did want to say some creditors (hospital/medical) will still send you to collections even if you are paying something if its less that they tell you they will accept. I know because this happened to me on a bill that was less than $500. I paid off $200 over a year and they said that was too little and sent me to collections.

That said, I have had hospitals work with me. When my dd was born 4.5 years ago I had to transfer to the hospital and was nervous because we had a high deductible policy (15K) and knew I did not have the money to pay my portion. Well they have worked with us taking $5 a month since she was born and haven't sent us to collections.

I would not put this on a credit card unless I had the means to pay that card off ASAP. What happens if you lose your income. No, they may play tough especially when so many are underinsured or not insured at all but the bottom line is you cannot get blood from a turnip.

[Leta]

Julia, you need to talk to the hospital's financial specialist. If they don't have one, tell them you want to talk to one from an affiliated hospital.

A close friend of mine was a hospital financial specialist for years (she's now a SAHM). If you want, pm me your email, and I'll email her. She is an awesome friend, very smart, and I'm sure would be a great resource.

Your child will qualify for a Medicaid spend down account, because children do. In the event that some crazy set of circumstances prohibits your child from getting a Medicaid spend down account, hospitals have been known to waive the entire bill. My friend did this more than once, including a bill for my cousin.

DON'T PUT ANYTHING ON A CREDIT CARD. DON'T TALK TO BILLING. You need a financial specialist, ignore everyone else.

So many hugs and good vibes to your little one.

[carfreemama]

No financial advice, especially as I'm in Canada. FWIW, I will say my very low-income parents never saw a bill. Yes, we pay for health care by our taxes, but for our family we were very glad for our health care system and still are.

I just wanted to respond as an adult burn survivor. I had 60% of my lower body 3rd degree thermal burns, plus 3rd and 2nd degree on my chest and left hand. I'm 42 years old now and though there were many grafts, compression stockings, etc. growing up, I'm completely fine (though scarred physically) now. I actually could have had more cosmetic/reconstructive surgery done, but I feel completely comfortable in my skin! I wear my burn scars proudly. It was WAY harder on my mom and her fear after the accident was much harder for me in every way than the actual accident and surgeries.

FWIW, I hear you say you do natural therapies. Now is the time for that! I had to see a burn specialist when I became pregnant with dd, because there was concern my skin wouldn't stretch across the tight band of scarring on my belly. Well, it did. The doctor said I'd probably have lots more stretch marks than average. Well, guess what? I didn't have a single one!! I credit my sister, who was a naturopath, with literally saving my skin. I am badly scarred, but my skin is supple and, I think, beautiful! Oh, and I don't blame anyone for the accident, though my mom blames herself. I made it just fine and so will your son. Much love to you.

[carfreemama]

I just thought of something. Do the Shriners work in the US? I thought they might be international. I know in my situation, even though hospital/medical bills were covered through the health care system, things like compression stockings weren't. Shriners covered that, plus out-of-town expenses for my mother to accompany me to hospital; which I often had to go to in a different city. They specialize in providing care for burn survivors. I know they run hospitals, but they just wrote cheques to my parents to cover costs.

[elephantmargaret]

yes the shriners do work in the US. One called me after we were home with DD. I thought about mentioning it earlier but with the surgery scheduled I wasn't sure there was any point. You do have to have a referal by a shriner though.

[elephantmargaret]

Originally Posted by carfreemama

I actually could have had more cosmetic/reconstructive surgery done, but I feel completely comfortable in my skin! I wear my burn scars proudly. It was WAY harder on my mom and her fear after the accident was much harder for me in every way than the actual accident and surgeries. .

thank you so much for this. I am so worried that DD will hate the way she looks (even though she should have minimal long term scaring) and blame me for it. I know "I" didn't burn her but I didn't manage to stop it... I hate it!

[zebra15]

Hugs to OP and margaret

[MissinNYC]

I haven't read all the replies, but I am so sorry your son is hurt.

We have an HSA HD plan, but our deductible is 2000 per year per person, or 4000 per family. So everything after that is covered 100%. I don't udnerstand how you end up having to pay that much- what is your deductible?

In general I love the HD plan, and I think they work well for most people.

[BetsyS]

Originally Posted by MissinNYC

I haven't read all the replies, but I am so sorry your son is hurt.

We have an HSA HD plan, but our deductible is 2000 per year per person, or 4000 per family. So everything after that is covered 100%. I don't udnerstand how you end up having to pay that much- what is your deductible?

In general I love the HD plan, and I think they work well for most people.

Those are really good deductibles!! Ours is $4500 deductibe, then a $10,500 out of pocket max. If you have family coverage, the family deductible/OOP apply, so that's those numbers. If only 1 or 2 people are covered, the numbers are different.

edited to add: this is employer sponsored, so it's our only option. And our premiums are reasonable ($325/month or so), so it all evens out.

[MissinNYC]

Originally Posted by chaoticzenmom

If they let you? They have no choice. They don't have to know that you have open credit to pay this. If you send them any money every 30 days, then they can't refer you to collections. If they cash the check anyway. I've heard of people sending 25$ every 30 days and since the check gets cashed, it doesn't go to collections. Most people don't have 10,000 in their pockets. They dont' have a choice except to work with you. Nobody can force you to put something on credit.

This isn't true. They can send it to collection if you don't pay the minimum due. And if they minimum due is the whole amount, you are SOL. I tried this in the past, and they cashed the check and still sent it to collections. Perfectly legal. And even though I did it, I don't think it's ethical, actually. They should get paid, and sending them a quarter to hold them off isn't really right.

But luckily hospitals almost always work with you.

[carmel23]

OP, we had an HSA situation like you, and when my DD was hospitalized, we were so scr3wed by the bills! It would have been better to have no insurance and been able to apply for medical.

They get you with the "co-insurance" b.s. ... So even if you pay your co-pay and meet the deductible, that isn't all that you have to pay.



I hope your little one is okay. I think talking to a financial specialist is the best thing to do.