222

Assuming nobody else is at fault

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] gabe@literature.cafe 112 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

It’ll also wreck your credit, and if you’re unlucky they’ll sell your debt off to debt collectors to harass you and your family. Even if they’ve died. And then the truly desperate will sometimes commit heath insurance fraud making the system even more immensely fucked for everyone except for the hospitals and insurance companies

[-] Foggyfroggy@lemmy.world 33 points 1 year ago

Not exactly. Medical debt is different compared to retail debt like credit cards. It still sucks but the rules are different to protect people at least a little bit.

[-] deweydecibel@lemmy.world 25 points 1 year ago

Yep. Medical debt is often not calculated into your credit score by the credit agencies, either, though not in all cases. Or if it is calculated in, it is heavily weighted against so it doesn't cause much damage.

And it makes sense. Credit score is supposed to be a judge of your credit worthniess based on your history seeking credit and repaying debts. While medical debt is legitimate debt, it isn't credit seeking behavior in the way an auto loan is. You didn't choose to take it on, it would be inaccurate to take a trip to the ER into account when determining your credit seeking habits.

[-] nocturne213@lemm.ee 12 points 1 year ago

I sustained a workplace injury (working on a movie set) and the production company never filed the paperwork, so their insurance would not cover me. I refused to pay the bill and it showed up on my credit report and caused issues for three years. Eventually i found my wrap gift from movie and inside the set medic had put a copy of the paperwork. I scanned it and emailed it to the hospital and within 72 hours it was taken care of and like a month later it was off my credit report. (Time frames may be off as this transpired in 2015)

[-] droans@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago

I can't imagine the mixed emotions you felt when you found that lmao.

[-] droans@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago

About five or six years ago, most creditors started using a different FICO model which doesn't include medical debt. Basically, the idea is that being unable to pay medical debt says very little about how well you can handle debt.

There are also models that don't consider student loans, but those aren't used as often.

[-] gabe@literature.cafe 9 points 1 year ago

Mind you, that is a recent change and there are some places that still illegally do so and it is a pain in the ass to get it removed.

The big story in my city a while back was a shitty debt collector that stole money from a guy's bank account.

‘It is like robbery’: A debt collector wrongly wiped out an Oregon man’s entire bank account

According to court records, the debt collector said Salazar owed money for treatment at Providence Portland Medical Center in late 2007 and 2008. Providence claimed it sent 26 billing statements and six financial assistance applications to the home address provided by the patient. The unpaid bills for six emergency room visits originally totaled $4,750 but have since ballooned to more than $14,000 after costs, fees and interests associated with the debt collection.

Salazar tried explaining to Professional Credit Service that he didn’t have the money to pay, but a customer service representative seemed unsympathetic.

“They did not care if my brother is sick and this is going to put us on the street,” explained Salazar. “They did not care.”

In April, Salazar filled out court papers challenging the garnishment. It temporarily froze his bank account, preventing the debt collector from taking any more money. At the same time, it kept Salazar from accessing much needed funds, including his paycheck, which is electronically deposited into the account.

https://www.kgw.com/article/news/investigations/debt-collector-wrongly-wiped-out-bank-account/283-01681963-8fe0-4b44-a57f-c076e4521b22

[-] gabe@literature.cafe 3 points 1 year ago

it's relatively common for some hospital systems to sue patients for non-payment if their bills are high enough.

[-] Theharpyeagle@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

I feel like a lot of people ignore collection agencies when they advise others to "just not pay." Yeah you could probably get away without paying, but you and your entire family will be harassed nonstop. There's been few things more chilling to me than a stranger calling me out of the blue with my sister's name and info telling me to get her to settle up (thankfully just a small amount).

this post was submitted on 20 Aug 2023
222 points (97.8% liked)

No Stupid Questions

35640 readers
1464 users here now

No such thing. Ask away!

!nostupidquestions is a community dedicated to being helpful and answering each others' questions on various topics.

The rules for posting and commenting, besides the rules defined here for lemmy.world, are as follows:

Rules (interactive)


Rule 1- All posts must be legitimate questions. All post titles must include a question.

All posts must be legitimate questions, and all post titles must include a question. Questions that are joke or trolling questions, memes, song lyrics as title, etc. are not allowed here. See Rule 6 for all exceptions.



Rule 2- Your question subject cannot be illegal or NSFW material.

Your question subject cannot be illegal or NSFW material. You will be warned first, banned second.



Rule 3- Do not seek mental, medical and professional help here.

Do not seek mental, medical and professional help here. Breaking this rule will not get you or your post removed, but it will put you at risk, and possibly in danger.



Rule 4- No self promotion or upvote-farming of any kind.

That's it.



Rule 5- No baiting or sealioning or promoting an agenda.

Questions which, instead of being of an innocuous nature, are specifically intended (based on reports and in the opinion of our crack moderation team) to bait users into ideological wars on charged political topics will be removed and the authors warned - or banned - depending on severity.



Rule 6- Regarding META posts and joke questions.

Provided it is about the community itself, you may post non-question posts using the [META] tag on your post title.

On fridays, you are allowed to post meme and troll questions, on the condition that it's in text format only, and conforms with our other rules. These posts MUST include the [NSQ Friday] tag in their title.

If you post a serious question on friday and are looking only for legitimate answers, then please include the [Serious] tag on your post. Irrelevant replies will then be removed by moderators.



Rule 7- You can't intentionally annoy, mock, or harass other members.

If you intentionally annoy, mock, harass, or discriminate against any individual member, you will be removed.

Likewise, if you are a member, sympathiser or a resemblant of a movement that is known to largely hate, mock, discriminate against, and/or want to take lives of a group of people, and you were provably vocal about your hate, then you will be banned on sight.



Rule 8- All comments should try to stay relevant to their parent content.



Rule 9- Reposts from other platforms are not allowed.

Let everyone have their own content.



Rule 10- Majority of bots aren't allowed to participate here.



Credits

Our breathtaking icon was bestowed upon us by @Cevilia!

The greatest banner of all time: by @TheOneWithTheHair!

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS