I need some advice, please.
My husband has cancer, and quite a few medical bills. Approximately $30k worth. He was served this morning for $20k worth of them from one healthcare provider. Will go to court. Medical bills were incurred in another, non-community property state, if that matters.
We live in a community property state. We have two children, and both will be headed to college soon.
Until his diagnosis, I worked only part time. He was by far the primary wage earner. All savings was decimated between initial treatment costs and his loss of wages. Once we got all of our ducks in a row after his rough, initial treatment, I started working full time as a teacher. We’ve been slowly adjusting and getting on decent footing, and we’re now 2.5 years post-diagnosis.
I earn teacher-type wages (under $45k/yr). He only receives monthly SSDI. I am almost done with graduate school which will boost my income some.
We cannot afford to repay the future judgement as we are pretty much just scraping by. No real assets - we are now renting half a townhouse, loans on both cars, but until now our credit was good. I have a small Roth IRA I started less than a year ago (maybe $1500 in it), and pay into my state’s teacher retirement fund, which I cannot touch.
Husband’s cancer is stage 4 and progressing slowly. He’s on treatment, but nothing with curative intent.
His life insurance is only worth $150k... he let his $125k work life insurance lapse because it was too bothersome to call/follow up and “the money is for you, so why should I call?”. Cancer sucks, and can make people resentful/angry/scared.
I am trying to plan for the future. Do we file bankruptcy at this point? After fighting so hard to be more financially sound, that is a low blow, but I am unsure of other options.
If he were to pass away soon (unlikely), I’d have $150k in life insurance and my teacher salary to stretch at least 5 or so years.
I don’t want to screw my credit, but worry I’m screwed anyway.
I had thought this bill was handled - we’d submitted something to them in like 2019. But apparently it was either denied or only covered a portion. At the time my spouse said it was fully forgiven, so today was a bit of a shock. I’d also thought we’d owed them $5k (maximum out of pocket, and the bill I remember seeing) but turns out the proton therapy treatment he had was covered at an out of network rate). Spouse apparently had been getting calls from a collection agency and knew it was over $20k, but didn’t tell me - says he didn’t want to stress me out.
We’d recently begun making small monthly payments on the local debt.
I feel lost. Cancer sucks. Medical bills suck, too, and add insult to injury. And yes, my marriage is and has been quite strained. Thanks for any advice.
Submitted May 20, 2021 at 12:22AM by 12bunnies https://ift.tt/33WTwcP
