So, You Can't Pay Your Health Insurance Because You're Sick. What Happens Next?

@jespah,

jespah wrote:

But consider that accident victims are brought in all the time, unconscious people (let's leave amnesia out of the equation), that sort of thing. Those people are admitted, under the emergency, and then the payment issues are figured out later.

hospital social workers work on this sort of thing constantly in the US

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@ehBeth,

I hope this is the case. I think you guys are in Canada and hope it is also the case in the US.

1 Reply

@Brandon9000,

Yes, I'm in Canada.

It's my experience that hospital social workers and discharge administrators in the US are very resourceful - at least in the states I deal with most frequently (where the snowbirds fly Smile

)

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All the hospitals I've seen in the past seven years have licensed social workers on the payroll. They would be on this like a tick on a dog long before thirty days had elapsed. Ultimately, there would be an appointment of both temporary conservator and guardian, and this can be done on an emergency basis that is quite fast. Bills would be sent to the estate. If there is no estate, I have no idea who would pay, but the essentials would be accomplished.

1 Reply

@roger,

roger wrote:

All the hospitals I've seen in the past seven years have licensed social workers on the payroll. They would be on this like a tick on a dog long before thirty days had elapsed. Ultimately, there would be an appointment of both temporary conservator and guardian, and this can be done on an emergency basis that is quite fast. Bills would be sent to the estate. If there is no estate, I have no idea who would pay, but the essentials would be accomplished.

That's a hopeful bit of information, but this question definitely presupposes no estate. Do living people have estates? Anyway, the question is about a person who has no close relatives.

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@Brandon9000,

I'm not sure what it's called when people are still alive, but their funds/care are managed by state-appointed guardians.

In some cases the guardians are appointed even when there is family. In the case of a friend's family, the grandmother has Alzheimer's and her husband wouldn't arrange for appropriate care even though he admitted he couldn't care for her. He refused to let any of his children take over guardianship for care (all three sons are truly good, loving men). He did however agree to let a public guardian be appointed for care matters for himself and his wife. I guess he thought she'd be less biased. She promptly moved grandmother to a locked 24-hour care facility and arranged to have the family home sold so grandfather could be moved to a lower-care facility on the same property. All the same things the family had recommended - but grandfather could accept the decisions coming from a stranger more easily.

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@Brandon9000,

Brandon9000 wrote:

That's a hopeful bit of information, but this question definitely presupposes no estate. Do living people have estates? Anyway, the question is about a person who has no close relatives.

Living people certainly do have estates, at least in New Mexico they do. No close relatives? I think I considered that in my answer.

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@Brandon9000,

You wrote,

Quote:

Too bad no one can rouse himself to do the legal work to get the money deducted from the bank account. I believe that health care should be absolutely guaranteed to everyone.

Is the patient comatose? If not, he/she can certainly explain the circumstances to someone at the hospital.

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@Brandon9000,

My insurance payments come directly out of my pension to BC&BS. If you're carried on Social Security, I believe that continues. But you should call your insurance company and see if you can make direct deposit to the company from your bank. If you don't already have your paycheck deposited directly, it might be a good idea to start. But you should raise this issue with your financial and legal advisors.

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@glitterbag,

My wife and I both have Medicare, and our monthly premiums are automatically paid from our social security benefits. The only thing we need to pay are the co-pays for services, except the annual physical is free.

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@cicerone imposter,

cicerone imposter wrote:

...Is the patient comatose? If not, he/she can certainly explain the circumstances to someone at the hospital.

Sometimes, when people are deeply ill, they are unconscious. I'm not sure if it's technically a coma or not.

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@Brandon9000,

If you live alone, have no relatives whatsoever to help you, then you do the
smart thing and have your healthcare premium automatically deducted from your account every month. Every insurance will send you an ACH form and then you don't have to worry anymore - every month the insurance amount is deducted from your account, if you're comatose or not.

1 Reply

@Brandon9000,

Many people have Medicare but also pay for some sort of medigap insurance. I know you can set this up for automatic payments in most banks and credit unions.

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@CalamityJane,

CalamityJane wrote:

If you live alone, have no relatives whatsoever to help you, then you do the
smart thing and have your healthcare premium automatically deducted from your account every month. Every insurance will send you an ACH form and then you don't have to worry anymore - every month the insurance amount is deducted from your account, if you're comatose or not.

If it's possible, it's a good idea. Then you just have to hope they don't mess it up should you be unconscious.

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@djjd62,

djjd62 wrote:

yay for national healthcare, it ain't perfect, but it beats the alternative

Yup, health insurance is one less thing to worry about.

1 Reply

@izzythepush,

You're lucky. The only danger, as I see it, would be long lines to see a doctor, but if that's not the case, then your system is a good one.

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@Brandon9000,

What I don't get is, why the premium isn't paid when you're sick.
I mean, sickness has nothing to do with your bank account, isn't it?

If you're here privately insured or in the law enforced health insurance and pay the premiums only yourself (= not automatically reduced from your pension etc) for whatever reason and stop paying it (which means, your bank stops paying it because you don't have any credit anymore) - nothing really happens besides
- you get reminders by the insurance company,
- your debt gets higher every month.
The insurance company has to (and will) pay at least your basic and emergency medical costs.

1 Reply

@Brandon9000,

First of all, insurance can't be cancelled the day the bill was due. Most states require a 30 day grace period. That means even if the person is paying month to month, they would have somewhere between 40-60 days before the insurance would be cancelled.

Secondly, if a person is incapable of making decisions and there is no one to make those decisions, they would probably be given a guardian to make those decisions and to take care of their financial matters.

http://family.findlaw.com/guardianship/guardianship-of-incapacitated-or-disabled-persons.html

Hospitals have social workers who would be capable of requesting a guardian for an incapacitated person with no known relatives.

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To slightly digress, suppose we've posted hundreds of pics around internet discussion forums (like i've done) and then become ill or die and can't renew our subscription to the image hosting site such as Photobucket.
I suppose Pb will close our account and all our pics will vanish from every forum.

1 Reply

@Walter Hinteler,

Walter Hinteler wrote:

What I don't get is, why the premium isn't paid when you're sick.
I mean, sickness has nothing to do with your bank account, isn't it?

If you're here privately insured or in the law enforced health insurance and pay the premiums only yourself (= not automatically reduced from your pension etc) for whatever reason and stop paying it (which means, your bank stops paying it because you don't have any credit anymore) - nothing really happens besides
- you get reminders by the insurance company,
- your debt gets higher every month.
The insurance company has to (and will) pay at least your basic and emergency medical costs.

The opening post made it clear that you were too sick to mail the check, possibly unconscious.

2 Replies

So, You Can't Pay Your Health Insurance Because You're Sick. What Happens Next?

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