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Today we’re going to talk about our money management topics and that is how to manage your health bills with a chronic illness, or how to manage health bills that are unexpected.

No I’m mainly going to talk about this from the perspective of those who aren’t in the UK.

If you’re in the UK, obviously, much of the health care we receive is free by the NHS, although sometimes we do have extra costs, such as prescriptions or paying private, if there are long waiting lists on the NHS. The NHS is paid through the taxpayer and tax contributions, and it’s quite a different system of universal health care compared to those in America who require health insurance.

This is usually through their employment but not always, but unexpected health bills arise in this situation because of deductibles or being without insurance, or things that are covered by insurance such as holistic treatments.

Furthermore, lots of times insurance is job dependent so if your job role changes, or your hours are reduced or you lose your job, obviously that could also alter your health insurance, and certainly find you, with unexpected health bills. So today I’m going to share some top tips if you find yourself in the situation of dealing with unexpected health bills.

1. Understand your health insurance coverage.

So this sounds that obvious one but a lot of the time people don’t necessarily look into the small print of their health insurance and realise that not necessarily everything is covered, or perhaps their deductible is higher than they thought it would be. A deductible is the amount you need to pay during a coverage period before your insurer will then cover the costs, and this could vary from a few $100 to $1,000, so it’s obviously worth bearing that in mind because once you hit that deductible, and then your insurance covers for the rest of the coverage period as well.

Also look at what your insurance actually covers and what your services cover in full, especially if you have quite a wide range of treatments.

Alternatively, If you are planning a pregnancy or a family. It’s also worth looking at the small print of your health insurance to see how pregnancy and childbirth is covered as well as making sure that certain types of treatment are covered. It’s also worth. If you’re going to a new hospital for the first time or seeing a new clinician, making sure they are also covered as well, not everyone is!

2. Keep a saving buffer

So my second tip would be to keep a savings buffer to cover those deductibles that we just talked about, but to also cover unexpected unexpected medical bills, whether that is due to an insurance problem, something that arises suddenly, or anything really, in relation to chronic illness.

Keeping a savings buffer, whether you decide to set aside a certain amount each month, or a certain amount at the end of each year, can provide some reassurance that if you are hit by certain bills you are able to pay them.

3. Look at your debts carefully.

So there could be many reasons why you potentially go into debt with a chronic illness, Of course medical bills are one of those but there are others too, so just not always be able to work consistently if you’re experiencing poor health, managing other bills such as living expenses, travel expenses, and generally perhaps other equipment and things that you require that aren’t covered on your insurance but are vital for you living a full life with a chronic illness. Therefore, keeping on top of debt is really important, whether that’s speaking to trained professionals mediators or looking into debt consolidation services (see here for info and also lots of tips for managing medical bills) make sure that your debt doesn’t spiral out of control.

4. check and double check.

So if you’ve reached the time where you’ve now received an unexpected unexpected medical bill, hopefully you’ve already prepared a plan for that but don’t make sure that you do check the bill carefully before you actually pay. There’s a whole range of reasons why you may be billed by mistake, whether it’s a simple typo or the wrong patient mix up, so make sure that you actually check is the right bill call your provider and make sure that everything is correct, and that you’ve not been charged erroneously because you’d be surprised about how many people might pay the bill when actually it’s just a technicality.

5. Hopefully these will soon be a thing of the past.

In the US from January 2021, There’s a new law that is going to take place which will effectively end much of what we’ve talked about today, about receiving a surprise medical bill for anyone in the US that receives emergency care and other services as well.

Of course, this won’t mean the end of medical bills, but it will hopefully mean the end of bills that you weren’t expecting or have no control over. For example, if you end up going to the ER
and you’re treated by a doctor who perhaps isn’t in your provider that is an example of an emergency medical bill that you weren’t expecting and didn’t really have any control over because you needed to get treatment.

This happens more often than you would think-research found that one in five people who go to the hospital with health insurance plan networks were actually treated by a doctor who was out of their network and ended up receiving a large an unexpected bill. Therefore this legalisation will hopefully end, the idea of unexpected bills and how you feel more confident about your health care bills in the future.

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