Benefits

[Ellen_Ann]

Hello Everyone
I was wondering if anyone knew if there is a program for assistance on medical bills accumulated
BEFORE being approved for SSDI.

I have no insurance. I have a medical bill of close to $9,000.00 I am responsible for. I applied for
free care and they told me I didn't qualify but I did qualify for partial free care but I am responsible for
first $9,000.00 so that does not help me at all.

Come May I am supposed to have benefits......is there any program that can help me?
Does SSDI help with the bills?

Thank you for any information.

Ellen

[flowergarden]

Ellen, I'm not very familiar with this, but I do know that a friend of mine who was uninsured with large medical bills was able to get state help here in Washington. I don't know how, but I do know she was persistent.

Maybe someone else will come along with more info.

Good luck. I'm sure it's very hard for you. style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/clover.gif

[Ellen_Ann]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(flowergarden @ Mar 11 2006, 04:35 AM) Quoted post</div><div class='quotemain'>
Ellen, I'm not very familiar with this, but I do know that a friend of mine who was uninsured with large medical bills was able to get state help here in Washington. I don't know how, but I do know she was persistent.

Maybe someone else will come along with more info.

Good luck. I'm sure it's very hard for you. style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/clover.gif
[/b][/quote]


Thank you Sue, up till present I am lost no one is assisting me and I dont know who to contact.
Thank you , Ellen

[raggedyann1]

Ellen,

You are not the first person here with that problem unfortunately. style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/sad.gif
There should be a social worker available at the hospital. They would be familiar with all the charities that could be helpful in your area. Catholic charities might help but not the whole thing. There is also a jewish group that helps out with stuff also. Either of them often help with utility bills and all sorts of things. If you have a salvation army in your area they might be able to help you with other things in your life. Ours provides basic medical care and dental care to poor uninsured individuals. Doctors and dentists volunteer their time to help. Also you could be eligible for free medications. There are several websites that help you find all the drug companies for your meds, their application forms and other things that they use to determine who to give meds to. one of the them is http://www.helpingpatients.org and another is http://www.needymeds.com .

Also do a search of this forum for other ways to survive while waiting for ssdi to be approved and the extra wait for medicare to start. You might use keys words like "surviving" or "help paying".

Hang in there.

Take care,
karen

[leahb133]

Does your state have an indingent care program? Thats what i use when I don't have health insurance which unfortuntaely i am abotu to run into that problem... good thing I am already registered with the progam.. i just have to update the income. Here, you still have to pay co pays when you go to the clinic etc but it depends upon your income and also you only have to pay a portion of your hospital stay just like with insurance. For example when I was on it last time i had several hospital stays and they were about 15,000 each but with the indingent care all i had to pay was 535.00 so that was a huge relief. I would look into that, most states have something similar?

[Ellen_Ann]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(raggedyann1 @ Mar 11 2006, 07:41 PM) Quoted post</div><div class='quotemain'>
Ellen,

You are not the first person here with that problem unfortunately. style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/sad.gif
There should be a social worker available at the hospital. They would be familiar with all the charities that could be helpful in your area. Catholic charities might help but not the whole thing. There is also a jewish group that helps out with stuff also. Either of them often help with utility bills and all sorts of things. If you have a salvation army in your area they might be able to help you with other things in your life. Ours provides basic medical care and dental care to poor uninsured individuals. Doctors and dentists volunteer their time to help. Also you could be eligible for free medications. There are several websites that help you find all the drug companies for your meds, their application forms and other things that they use to determine who to give meds to. one of the them is http://www.helpingpatients.org and another is http://www.needymeds.com .

Also do a search of this forum for other ways to survive while waiting for ssdi to be approved and the extra wait for medicare to start. You might use keys words like "surviving" or "help paying".

Hang in there.

Take care,
karen
[/b][/quote]
Thank you Karen so much for that information I will definitely look into it. I do remember talking to other people in the chat room and I remember one man saying to check out programs, that they are definitely out there, they just DONT advertise them. Of course why would the government want to help us ??? All they want is OUR MONEY, when we need help they forget who has paid into the system forever. I was so shocked to find out I had to pay taxes on my SSDI. I was under the impression it was NOT taxed, only to be told that SS isnt taxed but SSDI is taxed they consider it substitution income. SS is considered retirement and that is not taxed. So in essence I am paying taxes again for money I already paid taxes on Ughhhhhhhhh!!! So instead of getting a refund I wound up owing the government almost $300.00. It was more this time because of the retroactive check...which that is another joke, I was approved for 24 months of disability but they withhold 5 months, so again they kept what is rightfully mine... its so depressing., I don't know what I would do if I was alone thank God my husband works....
Again thank you for all your help.
God Bless, Ellen

[raggedyann1]

Ellen,

Only a portion of SSDI is taxable and that depends on your joint income with your husband. Also you can refile your taxes on the year before for the amount of back pay that applied to the previous year so that the tax load is reduced considerably.

SSDI never pays for the 1st 5 months of the disability that has been true for years now. So it wasn't something against you just the rules that apply to all.

Karen

[dudley]

Ellen Ann

Sorry I don't know of any programs. I would recomend that you talk with hosptial again. See if they will reduce debt at all. Set up some kind of payment program with them. Try for something like $10 per month. This way if they agree the can't put a lean against you.

It is better to do this before things get to far behind as they are more willing to negotiate.

best of luck


Elaine