Arizona Governor eliminating $2 Billion in medical debt

[Dane_in_LA]

Originally Posted by ocnjgirl

If it was untreatable, there woudn't be debt. Most kids with cancer don't die from it, but their parents can end up with hundreds of thousands or more in debt.

Before the ACA, their survival would come with two bonus prizes:

1. They'd be uninsurable for life
2. Their parents would have maxed out the lifetime payout for hospital treatment

But the stockholders were happy.

[ocnjgirl]

Originally Posted by AnywhereElse

I lived in AZ for 6 years, and my bet is that this will go to the medical debt of a lot of illegal aliens, whatever isn't covered by the free ride they get from a loophole in Medicaid! All through COVID it didn't matter whether what the legal status was, so in KS where there was a LOT of illegals, COVID was the cause of strokes, heart attacks, you name it in order to have the feds cover it because "they might have had COVID."

Illegals wouldn’t have medical debt. My mother was on Medicaid the last 7 years of her life and in and out of the hospital and rehab. All costs covered. It’s managed care, services that aren’t covered don’t get delivered. And not every state allows illegals to get Medicaid.

[ocnjgirl]

Originally Posted by Dane_in_LA

Before the ACA, their survival would come with two bonus prizes:

1. They'd be uninsurable for life
2. Their parents would have maxed out the lifetime payout for hospital treatment

But the stockholders were happy.

Yes I thought about mentioning those two points but didn’t want to be accused of being political.

[charolastra00]

I'm fully in support of this even though it won't help me at this point.

I was diagnosed with stage IV cancer a month after my 23rd birthday. I had done everything right up until that point: worked hard enough in high school that I had a full tuition scholarship to one of the best colleges in the world, graduated debt free with two majors and two minors, worked internships (in the 00s most were unpaid) and part time paid work concurrently with my degree, was fluent in a second language and functional in two more, and eschewed my plans for law school when the recession hit and I didn't want to risk that debt. Upon my diagnosis, I lived in a shared apartment 2 miles from work and walked round trip both ways and didn't have a car to save money.

And then boom, cancer. In 6 months of treatment, my OOP costs were far more than my take-home annual salary.... and that's to say nothing about the process of diagnosis and years of follow up, side effects, mental health care, and ongoing health challenges still after a decade of being cured.

It took my entire 20s to pay off my debt from cancer, despite good insurance, and that's only because I graduated from college debt free, had more in savings than the average recent grad, had stable employment that grew with promotions and raises, and lived incredibly frugally. If I had student loans, I would have been screwed. If I hadn't had a decent (if low paying as an entry level role) job with insurance, I would have been screwed. If I had kids, I would have been screwed.

Today, I pay more in taxes annually than my OOP costs for treatment. I recognize the immense privilege to be alive and doing well enough that those bills would have been a bump in the road if diagnosed today rather than something that upended my life and set me back a decade from being able to afford milestones like a house or having kids. What Arizona is doing is a start, but the US shows its tarnish in this regard.

[Dane_in_LA]

Originally Posted by ocnjgirl

Yes I thought about mentioning those two points but didn’t want to be accused of being political.

I think that for me, on this board, that horse has long since bolted.