Receiving an unexpected medical bill can be devastating for the average person’s finance situation. But what about when a Florida patient is anticipating opening up their mailbox to find a large bill waiting for him or her? In some cases, knowing what is coming does not make it any easier. For those burdened by medical debt, debt relief can be a necessary component of financial recovery.
In 2008, an out-of-state woman was diagnosed with a particularly aggressive type of breast cancer. With treatment, she successfully beat the cancer. However, she says she is still living with the lingering effects from undergoing that life-saving treatment — medical bills. She says that the cost of saving her life was so astronomically high that she is unsure how much the original total was. Unsure if she will ever be able to pay off that debt, she questioned whether she would have initially sought treatment if she could have known about her future bills.
This is unfortunately not an isolated story. Ongoing medical bills are cited in approximately 60 percent of bankruptcies. That figure is not just for the uninsured, either. Even people with health insurance coverage encounter bills for procedures and treatments that fall outside of their coverage.
Florida consumers often worry about the impact of bankruptcy on their credit scores. While bankruptcy does affect credit scores, so does debt. Those who are unable to repay their debts may find it easier to rebuild their credit score after first securing much-needed debt relief through either Chapter 7 or Chapter 13 bankruptcy.