Retired truck driver Michael B. has been all over America, but one place he doesn’t like visiting is the hospital.
Michael, who’s 67 and lives in Atlanta, has faced heart problems and then prostate cancer in recent decades – experiences that have left him financially depleted, due to his large hospital bills.
It sometimes seems like “nothing’s free here … you go broke paying medical bills” in America, he says.
But thanks to a television report Michael happened to watch one day, he got relief for at least one of his hospital bills from Emory St. Joseph’s Hospital, with possibly more to come.
Michael heard about Dollar For in a report from broadcaster Clark Howard on WSB-TV in Atlanta. He went to Dollar For’s website, completed a 2-minute online questionnaire, and discovered that he qualified for bill forgiveness.
Says Michael, “I had never even heard of Dollar For before, but I thought I’d try it.”
He applied this past May. After some communication back and forth about supplying the documents the hospital required, in November he learned that one bill for $3,459 was crushed. Dollar For is still working with Michael’s case to see if other bills may qualify for debt relief, too.
Michael says now, “I felt tremendous relief, because negotiating with them (hospital officials) is non-negotiable.” Hospital staff didn’t mention possible financial assistance, Michael says.
Medical debt is the leading cause of bankruptcy in the U.S. Michael, who’s on Social Security, has been paying what he could every month on his hospital bills.
Still, “the bills pile up, every time you have treatment. I had treatments for 28 days, and I’m still having treatments. Radiation was 28 days solid, every day,” and then he had hormone treatment, he continues.
Along with that, Michael has been a heart patient for the last 13 years, and he had open-heart surgery in 2020. His open-heart surgery cost $750,000, and his Medicare coverage only paid for 80 percent of that.
“It’s been trying – it’s very difficult,” he says.
The money Dollar For saved him will help Michael and his wife with their living expenses, because “when you’re on Social Security, that’s it. There is no side job for me, not any more.”
“You got the mortgage to pay, the light bill, you have to put gas in the car” and pay for groceries and other day-to-day essentials, he notes.
And there’s no choice when it comes to going to the hospital for needed treatment: “When they say ‘come,’ you come,” or else you face possibly life-threatening consequences.
Don’t ignore health warnings, Michael says, “because all you’re doing is killing yourself” if you do. “I’ve been through so much as far as hospitals … take care of yourself, that’s my advice.”