► Debt Consolidation - Mortgages

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Medical Bills

      One out of seven older Americans has reported that paying medical bills was either "very difficult" or used up all their savings. Negotiating with hospitals or medical providers is an underutilized but often effective strategy in dealing with medical debt.

     Hospital and providers' willingness to reduce bills is largely due to a phenomenon in health care pricing called "cost-shifting." Cost-shifting results when hospitals and other medical providers concede huge discounts to third-party payers such as HMOs and Medicare/Medicaid. Because of these discounts, the providers attempt to shift many of their costs onto the shoulders of "self-payers" (i.e., the uninsured or underinsured.) The shocking consequence is that a medical provider/creditor may charge a low income, uninsured patient two or three times what it accepts as payment from private insurers.

     Patient should never convert unsecured debt into secured debt by, for example, taking out a second mortgage to pay for medical bills. There are other options that will not result in the loss of property. To avoid excessive medical bills, apply for health insurance quotes online.