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Drowning in Medical Bills

 Honestly, I just need to vent for a second. My hubby and I both work and we are not poor. Unfortunately, though with chronic conditions we have to see specialist doctors every 4-6 months. One appointment to mine is about $84 dollars if they haven’t raised it. My primary charges $115-150. Labs have to be done every six months. They usually cost about $150, but this last time they added separate charges for each test and it was $550. My insurance covered $51 of that bill. Still paying on an ER visit last January when had trouble breathing and they gave me a breathing treatment. That was around $5,000. I have paid almost half down. Good old Wellspan sends these unpleasant reminders even though I am making regular payments. I learned the hard way years ago. Legally if you pay something, they can’t report you to collections, but if you miss a payment they will immediately pounce. Anyway, bottom line is we have enough bills that paying them right away just wasn’t doable. The more free healthcare is given out, the less we get for what we pay. That is just how it is. And you can blame the healthcare company they are innocent either. However, at the end of the day, everyone has to get paid. So what do they do? They charge the ones that are paying more money not the people making billions and millions dollars because they probably don’t need what we need. The people who have chronic health conditions and need to see a doctor more than once a year. My doctors are shocked when I say I can’t afford a procedure. My last MRI was $5,000. I am probably going to have to go to the insurance company and switch all my providers. Although there is one I am keeping. How do we make THIS better. I do see that on provider is much less expensive so I will be making some changes. 

Rant over. If you have good insurance, don’t take it for granted. 

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