I just found out I need to have sugery, and I have no insurance. is there any place i can go for help?

Question

The cost of the sugery is $14,000, and I am on a very fixed budget. Can anyone tell me where I can go for help?

Answer 1

The vast majority of people are on a fixed budget.  

Call the doctor and hospital, see if they can pre-negotiate the price for services, and offer you a payment plan.

Contact your church, see if they have a fund or collection to help out with this - mine does.

And  contact family members, and see if they'll chip in.

You're not going to get insurance to cover this now, if you don't have insurance yet.   It's now a "preexisting condition".  The time to buy insurance, is BEFORE stuff goes wrong.   Sorry.

Answer 2

There are several options you have:

1. Go to your doctor and hospital and see if you can work out a payment plan. Lots of times they will. Now what they will do is they will check your credit and if your credit says you pay your bills on time and have not filed bankruptcy, most of the time they will work out an arrangement with you. If you have filed bankruptcy or your credit is not good, they will not choose the option of a payment plan. Basically they will tell you to come back when you found a way to pay them for their services.

2. Their are local agencies like the United Way that may provide some type of assistance. Usually they will require that you furnish at least three years of tax returns and they will probably do a background search to make sure you do not have any criminal history. If your financials prove that indeed your financials are what you say they are they will help you with some of the assistance, not all but some.

3.If you have a church you attend on a regular basis and are an active member, they have funds to help members through hard times. They also will want to see some financials to see that you qualify like you say. If so, they will provide some assistance also, but not all of the costs. It depends on how much they have in their fund and how much the committee decides to help you with.

4. There are other local government agencies that you may can get some assitance from.

5. Lastly find a second job and save up at least half the costs and take it to your hospital, then they will see that you are committed and they may help you set up a payment plan on the balance.

Answer 3

Try your area's major teaching hospital / medical school. Most work can be done at reduced rates, or paid for via charity care. You might also want to discuss the matter with the hospital's financial department prior to surgery to see what options you may have available,