How has anyone dealt with overwhelming debt, the majority of which is medical?

We have an adult son with a long and complex medical history including multiple big surgeries. Though there was excellent insurance in place for each surgery we were still left with enormous bills. For some we wrote letters explaining our situation and asked that the doctor/surgeons accept the amount that insurance paid as full payment. Most kindly did this. For the hospital I sent physical checks for $50 every month for literally years and years. They called and sent nasty letters but no one ever came after us for the balance. We were quietly told by one worker in the hospital administration that as long as we paid regularly nothing would ever happen, our credit wouldn’t be dinged, and though we’d be bothered by them, no action would be taken. It was true. And it was on our terms, far different than signing up for any payment plan designed by them or a collection firm. The mountain can be climbed!

Don't disqualify yourself from potential benefits by not applying. Apply and watch for the question about any unpaid medical bills...you may turn out to be eligible for retroactive coverage. Yes there is such a thing. If not, see if the hospital has a program to write off bills if your income is low, such as under 300 percent of the FPL, Federal Poverty Level. You have to take action. If none of these steps work, the creditors may try to sue to collect but you may be judgment proof (SSI) which means they can't take it for the debt. You could consult a bankruptcy attorney because medical debt is a major cause of bankruptcy. I would not file right away though...let's see if the new presidential administration will get some changes done for medical debt. Again, take action.

Hi all, just wanted to add a little more to the story: I spoke to the MD's nurse today and they are strongly urging the CT with contrast on Monday. In fact the MD said there would be "nothing" to talk about if I did not have it as it would indicate healing or not and bleeding or whatever...leaking....Nurse was sweet enough to offer to go through it with me....and they will do whatever they can to make it as comfortable as possible....(think embla, topical anesthetic). I also was shocked to learn that the MD told her and she shared on with me that I was very critical when I came in, and they really brought me back, i.e. resusitated me....It's all very scary to learn. I'm just hugging my pup and grateful to be here....

This happened to my dad in 2012.

He contacted the providers and explained that he had no money, was happy to make minimum payments but could they help him with the dollar amount. It was close to a million dollars for all of his medical and heli transport.

They were happy to help him and he ended up with 7k worth of bills that he had to pay.

Insurance never pays for heli transport and we never know this until we get astronomical bills.

It is pretty inexpensive to purchase this insurance and I recommend that everyone pay the 150 bucks annually to ensure that they don't go bankrupt from the costs.

Good luck getting them to work with you. If not, file medical bankruptcy.

Check with the Hospital and see if they have Charity help. My grandson had a 6k deductable and they paid about 4k since Gson had paid 2k of it because he wasn't aware of the Charity thing.

Never heard of a Hospital picking up a helicopter bill. Your usually billed for every stinking thing.

First of all, make SURE that all of your bills were submitted to your insurance company. (I presume that this is Medicare.)

You are responsible for ambulance or helicopter airlift charges due to medical necessity - but those can also be billed to your insurance and covered - at least for most of it.

Please don't "ignore" those bills. Making minimal payments while you "sort out" all of the charges is better than those bills going to collections for non-payment. Same with credit cards; make the minimum payment until you have the charges sorted out.

I've had times in the past where I had a lot of medical debt. I worked with the hospital billing department to make regular monthly payments on those bills. It took a while, but I eventually got them paid off.

I am so very sorry for this. The new bills just passed (the one with the stimulus) has provisions to help Americans. One is with the coverage of copter and other medical air transport; the other part is that when you are treated at a hospital out of your own insurance coverage the hospitals have to negotiate the bills. So a Kaiser patient treated at Sutter will still get the coverage. That won't help you, however. Most of the bankruptcy I see is medical bankruptcy. Wait until all bills are in, and then just do it. All bills are wiped out at once. You won't get credit for a while; that can sometimes be a positive thing. Most who have these often congenital aneurysms don't know it; the autopsy lets families know. You are lucky to be alive; now don't let the stress of bills make you sick. So sorry you are going through this.
Medicaid won't cover you retrospectively (I think). Try to negotiate the bills down. Do you currently have insurance? You need to have. You have time. Don't rush yourself.

Medicaid does cover many costs retro-actively which means that if you the time of your surgery fit within the allotted amount of time from when you apply they will pay.
Also, there's an old saying about not being able to get blood from a stone. Send them 25 bucks a month. That's you making an effort at payment and they can't go after you for lack of payment.
Is it correct for me to assume that you had some medical insurance at the time of your illness and surgery? If so, then report these questionable expenses they're tacking onto the bill to the insurance company. No insurance company on earth is going to pay extra and not question the entity sending or padding the bill. They will demand every bit of information about your case and the hospital, helicopter service, and anyone else will not refuse them. Then request all of it from your insurance company. They'll send it to you too. Let them do the work of getting all this for you, and they will. Also, I burnt off on a whole bunch of medical debt myself, much of it on credit cards. Once again, you can't get blood from a stone. They forgive it after seven years anyway. As for the credit cards, stop paying them. After a while (usually several months to a year later) they will then start making you offers on settling your debts with them and they will settle for pennies on the dollar. In the meantime, you will be without credit cards though. That's not too hard to fix. I'm assuming that your parents are elderly and probably have good credit, right? Get them to put you on one of their credit card accounts. Now, of course you'll be trustworthy and not run up a credit card bill on the account because you obviously love your parents otherwise you wouldn't be taking care of them. Be mindful of that credit card and your own credit in your own name will be restored in about 2 to 3 years.
I'm sure this sounds like a shady and underhanded way to operate, and it is. It's no where near the blatant ripping off and thievery the medical industry and insurance industry gets away with. This is often the only way the little guy can get by.

Gdaughter, glad you are continuing to get the care you need going forward. Keep us updated!

Just a thought about the medical bill issue-- at some point as the specific amounts you might owe become clearer you might want to try posting your question regarding the money issue specifically on the Bogleheads Forum, in the section of the board devoted to personal finance issues:

https://www.bogleheads.org/forum/viewforum.php?f=2

BarbBrooklyn has recommended this site often, and I checked it out on her suggestion to another poster and found a lot of useful info there. There are a lot of well-informed posters there willing to troubleshoot on various financial topics.

The most stressful thing I ever did - and the best thing I ever did, is file bankruptcy. My situation was during the recession - and none of it was medical. One of the bills added was someone's medical bill. I have no idea who the person was, and it was not my bill. The attorney said to just let it flow through because it wasn't worth the effort to analyze and fight it.

Do bankruptcy. Go make an appointment with a bankruptcy attorney.