Ramon A., 56, was having a regular day at his construction job when a work accident landed him in the hospital. Things only escalated from there as an MRI led to a cancer diagnosis, and eventually, a struggle to resolve medical bills, each thousands of dollars.
Other than occasional headaches and fatigue, Ramon says he hadn’t experienced symptoms that would make him believe he had cancer or any other illness. “I was very healthy all my life,” he shares.
But after falling backwards while carrying a bag of cement at work, near his home in Victoria, Texas, Ramon had to go to the emergency room. “They found a tumor in my brain that day,” he says.
The same day, Ramon rushed to San Antonio, where he had a biopsy. When that showed he had Stage 4 cancer, he underwent surgery at Memorial Hermann Health System, in Houston, where he also began regular radiation sessions.
“They required me to be there Monday through Friday, five days a week for six weeks … I’d go to radiation in the morning and then, at night time, I’d take chemotherapy pills,” Ramon recalls.
Fortunately, Ramon has family in Houston, whom he stayed with throughout that time. He says they helped him get an insurance plan, which covered a lot of the expenses that were adding up for treatment.
Still, Ramon says he did not anticipate getting bills totaling $12,747.
He remembers getting the first bill just days after being diagnosed and going through surgery. As he went on with treatment, “They sent me several bills. Some $5,000 … different prices, each bill,” he says.
According to the Perryman Group, a team of analysts who focus on various branches of the economy, patients themselves paid 12.75% of the $23 billion total cost of cancer treatment in Texas in 2023 – over $2.9 billion.
Since Ramon had not been able to return to work because he was unwell, he says he grew worried about finances.
While he doesn’t remember who it was, he says someone sent information about Dollar For to his phone. He notes he did not hesitate to fill out the application form and follow Dollar For’s instructions on what to communicate to the hospital, as well.
About three months later, Ramon recalls, he received notice that his thousands of dollars in hospital bills were completely eliminated.
“I was under a lot of stress. When [Dollar For] started helping me, I felt more relaxed,” Ramon says. “Then, when the bill was cleared, I was very, very happy. I told my wife and my son that there was a program that helped me [with] the bills.”
For Ramon, to eliminate medical debt meant “I could feed my family,” he says.
Though he can’t return to construction work because of the nature of his surgery, he says, he is considering going to school to learn a new trade.
He plans to stay in touch with Dollar For in case he needs help with additional hospital bills and encourages anyone else tackling medical debt to reach out too, “So [Dollar For] can help them the same way they did with me.”