Health (Mental Physical) | Double Debt Single Woman

My ER Medical Bill: The Numbers are In

Posted on March 16, 2015 by Double Debt Single Woman

I got the claim details email from by insurance provider not long ago for my recent emergency room visit. I became physically nervous when I saw that email in my inbox. The dollar amount on that form could impact my financial situation for months (or years) if my insurance company wanted to find loopholes to deny benefits. What was the financial damage? Well, in short, better than feared, worse than hoped.

The hospital bill was $11,287.03. My portion, thanks to my (high deductible) insurance, will be $3,020.50. I haven’t been presented with the bill yet so I have some time to plan. With my savings and another paycheck or two, I should be able to pay this off relatively quickly. Unfortunately, this will drain my savings back to nothing.

Immediately after that I will need to start saving money to pay for the surgery. I should have another $2,000-$3,000 to pay for that before maxing out my out-of-pocket expenses for the year.

Thanks to blonderbetterfasterstronger for reminding me about my HSA (Health Savings Account). For many of us with high-deductible health plans, we also have an HSA that allows us to save up to $3300 a year, pretax to be saved for health care costs. If used to cover health care, the money does not incur tax at payment either and is thus 100% tax-free. I opened my HSA last year. I should have about $2,000-$3,000 in there by now.

I don’t want to use this HSA money now, however. I’d prefer to build up my HSA savings as we are allowed to house our HSA money in investments to grow it over time. I think of it as a mini retirement investment account for healthcare. It will serve me better to cover more expensive medical procedures down the road.That’s my thinking for now anyway.

So, all in all, not so bad of a financial hit. I should be able to pay for these medical expenses by the end of June and then get back on track to build up savings and attack my student loan debt. It’s a delay, but a necessary one.

“Debtor’s prison is real, and opportunity cost is a bitch.” (DDSW)

The Post Where DDSW Falls Back into Credit Card Debt?

Posted on March 15, 2015 by Double Debt Single Woman

Should I have known that it was too good to be true? I was gloriously out of credit card debt for two weeks. Then it happened. The health problem that I’ve been telling you about decided that it didn’t want to wait for me to save up an emergency fund. It sent me to the Emergency Room instead.

It was a 7-hour all-night ordeal of which I will spare you the gory details. The first three hours I spent in the waiting area at the point of tears and in utter pain. I’d never been to an Emergency Room before and let me tell you, that the stereotype of the crowded, underfunded, understaffed ER department was true in my case.

Finally, I was taken into a room where a procedure was performed to relieve the immediate pain. I had some bloodwork done and was given a CT scan. The underlying health problem was confirmed by the scan. Surgery will be required in the near future along with visits to specialists.

After some deliberation about whether I would be kept in the hospital overnight, I was finally allowed to leave around 4:30am.

Thankfully, I have insurance, but it is a high-deductible plan. I don’t yet know what the bill will be for my emergency room visit, but needless to say, it will be much more than the $2k that I have managed to save so far. When the bill comes in, I will be updating my numbers. Hopefully, I will be permitted to pay the bill on an installment plan. If not, it will have to go on the credit card. Sigh.

At least by the time I have the surgery, I will have met my annual out-of-pocket limit. Hopefully, my insurance will pick up the tab from that point forward.

Well, I knew that this would have to be dealt with sooner or later. I suppose fate has brought it forward.

“Debtor’s prison is real, and opportunity cost is a bitch.” (DDSW)

The Moment When Debt Causes You to Lower Your Expectations in Life

Posted on December 4, 2014 by Double Debt Single Woman

I started this blog back in late 2012 after realizing that I wasn’t going to pay off my debt as easily as I’d assumed I would after I’d graduated from school. In the days following getting fired from my job back in 2013, my precarious financial situation became even more real to me. I spent a lot of time thinking about my past, present, and future whenever not applying for jobs. ‘Is there a way out of this?’, I’d ask. ‘Will I ever be able to live a “normal” life’ (i.e. my own house, car, nice things)? With a calculator and a notepad, I sat on the old squeaky twin bed that came with the room that I was renting at the time and started doing the math….

After a period of time running calculations, I accepted the unavoidable truth. I’d likely never be able to afford to pay off all of this debt, own a home and car, travel, afford nice clothes, and save enough for a comfortable retirement. I didn’t make enough money (still don’t), and there weren’t enough working years left. In 10 years, I’ll be in my 50’s and subject to ageism and involuntary retirement. I likely won’t have a spouse or anyone else to rely on in my old age. I’m always hopeful, of course, but also a realist. The odds are against me at this point in life. So that was it… And the illusion crumbled…

I sat there and let it sink in. The rest of my life won’t be like I’d always envisioned it being. The future self, the ‘successful me’, that I’d had in my head all these years would never exist. It was sad to think about. It’s still sad to think about. It was almost like a mourning. I felt like a failure. I still feel like a failure.

As I sat there, the cognitive dissonance started to subside as the rational part of my brain took over again. If there wasn’t going to be enough money to go around, then I had to prioritize and make choices. First, the debt has to be repaid. The consequences for not doing so would be too severe. Seventy-five percent of my 140k+ debt is student loan debt, so bankruptcy was not an option.

Next, I knew that retirement funds would be necessary to support me in my old age. With no retirement savings in my late 30s, I knew that I would have to sacrifice as much money as I could to put into a retirement account when (if) I got my next job. Lastly, I would have to live my life on very little money between then and retirement, only to continue living frugally in old age. That’s not even accounting for needing to take care of my parents in their final years. Frankly, I’m planning that my siblings will be willing to fund most of our parent’s care-taking as they are much more financially well-off than I am. (Hell, who isn’t?)

No house, no nice things, no travel. I’d need to continue living under other people’s roofs, in rented rooms, sleeping on other people’s old squeaky twin beds; at least for the foreseeable future. As someone who cherishes personal space and privacy, this was a bitter pill to swallow. (Side note: Although I’ve moved twice since that day in 2013, I’m currently writing this post on a squeaky twin bed in a rented room). As living with roommates is a constant source of low level stress for me, I realize I am sacrificing a bit of my health because of this.

Around that same time last year when I had my calculator reckoning, I discovered minimalism and simplicity. It was a buoy for me in that it helped me to cope with my situation. It helped me to see that I don’t need ‘nice things’ to be happy. I don’t need to own a home or car. I won’t lie and say that those things wouldn’t be nice to have. I’ve just come to accept that they may not be for me.

Today, I don’t know how my journey on this rock will end. (Would I even want to know?) However, I’m coping with ~~lowered~~ adjusted life expectations, the best way that I know how. I don’t look, dress, or live like other women my age, because of my financial situation. The sour truth is that sometimes I’m treated differently by others because of those differences. Being and looking poor has its disadvantages. I’m planning to re-start work on a couple of side projects that may become a source of side income. I need to find a way to make more money without sacrificing my health. I will do what I can to improve my situation, and to focus on the silver lining to my cloud.

How has debt affected you? What have you done about it?

“Debtor’s prison is real, and opportunity cost is a bitch.” (DDSW)

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