bills starting to roll in

[dixie_belle]

OK, so we had this horrific roll over accident on the 4th of July. Hubby was taken to hospital in ambulance and ended up with a broken neck, had surgery the following day. So far we've received one bill.......ready????? Hospital bill is $47,000. Unbelievable. He was only in the hospital for 3 days. Haven't gotten the bill for doctor, ambulance, anesthesia, just hospital. OMG. I almost had to go into the hospital with a heart attack when I saw the bill!!!! I estimate this will cost us $100,000. And we are still out a truck and stock trailer. Sigh.

I'm sorta in a state of shock. I had no idea this would cost so much. Told hubby he'd best be nice to me or I'd let the hospital repossess the plate and screws in his neck. LOL

 

[Sonya]

Why wouldn't your car insurance cover your doctor bills if you don't have health insurance? Mine does.

 

[Sonya]

As a matter of fact I get a discount on my car insurance because my health insurance will cover car accidents, not all health ins will pay for car accidents, but if mine didn't my car ins premium would be higher but I would have the coverage....maybe it's different in your state?

Also your car insurance should be paying the value of your truck/trailer...it is usually lower than what you may owe or the actual value but it is compensation.

Did you only have liability coverage?

 

[dixie_belle]

Our car insurance will pay the first $10,000. Hubby carried only liability on truck. Sigh.

We have blue cross/blue shield for our own personal insurance. I am not sure how much they will pay. Haven't heard a word from them. Hopefully when all is said and done our portion will be reasonable. It is just a real shock to see a bill that high.

 

[Sonya]

Well thankfully, you both lived...when I paid off my last car, I was going to just go with liability but never got around to changing the insurance...6 weeks later I hit a deer and totalled my car. I didn't think my car was worth that much because it was 5 years old with lots of miledge but I ended up with a check for $7K which was a nice down payment for my next car. I will always keep full coverage now, yes it's more expensive but in the long run may be worth it. If you call Blue Cross they should be able to tell you what you can expect to pay...hopefully they cover it all/most of it.

I once had a very large hospital bill, took me years to pay it off...if you do get stuck paying something just work out the minimum payment you can make a month, you would be surprised how much they will work with you...as long as you are giving them something they should be satisfied and shouldn't charge you interest.

 

[Riverrose28]

Sonya is right about them working with you to pay off the balance. Many yrs ago hubby had a total blockage of a vein in his leg and needed bypass surgery. Hospitalization paid all of the hosp. bill except for $8000 co-pay. We called them and worked out a payment plan. It took us a few yrs. to pay it off, but did so without any hassel.

On your truck and trailer, can you sell them for scrap? My daughters car was totaled and she only had liability but got a few bucks for it at the scrap yard.

My old truck and horse trailer are paid for, but I learned long ago to have them both insured to the max, even then you won't receive enough money to buy new to replace, and trailer ins. is really low but well worth it should something bad happen. Yrs. ago we didn't have our trailer ins. as we figured if we were involved in an accident it was insured on the truck policy but a freind of ours was in an accident with hers and her car ins. company wouldn't reimburse her for the horse trailer, so that is why now we carry trailer coverage. Just something for you to think about for the future, as I feel that I learn from others experiences. Good luck!

 

[Field-of-Dreams]

Ouch, that's painful! I'm sorry...

I just changed my insurance yesterday to cover my Mini trailer. It's really not that expensive, I think $21 a year for collision and $7 for comprehensive.

 

[Jill]

Your BC / BS will pay according to the policy. There's probably going to some form of a split with a max out of pocket that will be no where near the size of the bills you're seeing now. Example... 80/20 (them/you) with a max of $5,000 out of pocket.