To people acting like everyone ends up in debt on purpose, feel lucky that you’ve not had financial disaster strike. Means can change in an instant, and what you thought was a huge safety net can be gone to a bad accident or hospital stay as quick as you can blink.
this post was submitted on 17 Dec 2023
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Facts. I had a major health issue essentially overnight, no long term disability but decent health insurance. Maxed out my deductible 2 consecutive years, was unable to work for 10 months. Still in medical debt with no savings almost 3 years later because of this setback. Hoping to get the debt paid off in the next year and start saving up again.
Which is precisely something anyone outside the US (or other countries without a functional social healthcare system) don’t understand. Nobody outside those places is as worried about their healthcare costs dragging them into debt. Which makes sense, considering there’s no reason why an ambulance should cost between 5 and 10 thousand dollars, or a drug having to cost 5000 times the production price, when it’s initial development was funded by US taxpayers.
Yeah, but they are free and you're not /s
Eh, plenty of people here in Europe go into horrendous debt after an unwanted change in circumstances. Maybe not medical debt (to some countries), but many lose jobs, homes, income, and more.
They were specifically talking about medical debt.
Also, most European countries have excellent systems to catch those who lose jobs until they get a new one so you don't have to start over.
Yep. Hurt my back and needed surgery, was out of work for 3 months, literally the week after I returned to my job my wife had a severe neck issue that took 9 months to diagnose then 6-12 months to recover from after surgery. So one of us has been out of work almost non stop for almost 2 and a half years now, in addition to accruing a ton of medical debit. And I have really decent insurance, but the max out of pocket is like $5000-13000 for my family. And my premium aren’t cheap either. It’s unfortunate.
I'm sorry to hear that and i hope it gets better for you and your wife. It's not easy hitting those deductibles when one or both of you aren't able to work.
Reading accounts like this has made me realize I should worry about disability insurance coverage more than life insurance. That extra 600 bucks a year or whatever for the add on disability insurance to give me 50% more coverage seems worth it to me. Hope I never need it, but 25 bucks per paycheck seems worth it for extra peace of mind and security.
Im guessing thay you're in the US and you're referring to "long term disability insurance". To anyone else in the US considering LTD and thinking "$25 is a lot a month, I could afford it but the insurance doesn't seem that important." Please look into the rules in your area. In some cases, if you don't have LTD you're health insurance ends when your Short term disability ends if you cannot still return to work at that time. LTD may keep your health insurance going in a time when you will most need it for you and/or your family. It could mean the difference between being back at work in 2 years and losing everything. If you can afford it you should probably get LTD.
So I guess I am lucky that my employer offers basic LTD? For me the 30 bucks is the supplemental add on to get the standard 40% salary coverage increases to 60%. To me that's 600 or 700 bucks a year in cost that is going to be the difference of thousands of dollars a month if I end up needing LTD.
Know what's fun? Waking up at 2 am and having to grab your family and whatever you can carry, because the river is now in your living room.
So many people are, as you say, in debt for reasons completely outside of their control. And it doesn't take a lot. Bad transmission in your car, or a surprise medical bill, tree limb landing on your roof...
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Yet another article that could have been published any time in the past 40 fucking years.
Pretty much.
Yeah! Be like the billionaires, former mayors of NY, radio talk show hosts and politicians. Don't pay back shit.
Lets say you have no objective chance of ever getting a house and you have an apartment you probably can't be kicked out of.
How does it make sense to keep drowning and being miserable and nominally padding the bottom line of some random banks ledger?
Why not file and discharge, keep ur car/primary residence, and be done with it? Banks have everyone on this riduculous hamster wheel that even they would never tolerate, but ya, you're a deadbeat fuckup for demanding corporations dirty little trick creditors HATE...
you have an apartment you probably can’t be kicked out of.
Mind expanding on why you think this is a reasonable assumption? There was an eviction moratorium at the height of the pandemic, but that has been over for more than two years now. The required notice period for an eviction varies with jurisdiction, but generally isn't more than a month or two, and if you try to drag it out a little further by refusing to vacate and forcing them to take you to court, having an eviction on your credit report makes looking for future rental accommodations Super Hell™.
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Bankruptcy sucks and I wouldn't recommend it except as a last resort, but if one's position is untenable it makes sense to avail yourself of every recourse. I have a friend who went through one and she's doing fine as far as I can tell. It's not like businesses are shy about filling Chapter 11 when it suits their purposes.
That's okay. The govt can forgive it and print money if needed.
They only do this for corporations defaulting. not citizens... ;)
Shitttt!
The government should go after the companies price gouging and make a fund with it. That fund should be set up for people that are in trouble either with a payment plan that works, financial council if needed. I'm not sure if they can get enough funds for partial and full payments but the corporate greed is one reason all these people had to go this route. Most Americans are living paycheck by paycheck every year medical goes up higher than the wages.
Did they not include a link to the poll in the article?
No, but they did state: "The survey was conducted on December 8 with a sample size of 1,500 people living in the U.S."
Sooooo, it essentially means fuck all.
Fuck em, dont pay it back. Shit lets go fight club on these companies. They do nothing but steal. Might as well do the same back.
The first step is getting as out of debt as possible. The second step is figuring out which of those debts are pointless money pits [medical, student loans] and then realizing that credit is nothing more than a yoke and a scam and then you're totally free.
They wont garnish your wage without a court order, and guess what would be impossible to get if we all did it? The courts would be backed up for 30 years.
Americans should leave that hell hole and migrate to europe. Just leave that shit behind. Maybe the system changes when there are no more people to exploit.
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