Unable to afford medical bill…help!

I've never really had any problems with health insurance in the past, being that I was young, with really no medical issues, & always worked full time. However, about two years ago I had to drop down to part time, due to some personal issues, & got privatized health insurance. Being the first time I had to deaI with private health insurance I didn't know what to expect. It was mostly okay…I noticed I was having to pay a bit more for stuff like prescriptions & office visits, annual checkups, whatever…The problem was it did not cover anything to do with mental health-no therapy, meds, anything like that, so since I only see my therapist once a month, I just paid him out of pocket. I decided I wanted to prioritize my mental health, so I had already made the decision to try to switch to another company when open enrollment came up. However, before that happened I wound up in the hospital twice. I was in the ER with pneumonia & sent home on antibiotics. A week later I was having extreme chest pain & wound up having to stay in the hospital a few days due to a pulmonary embolism & worsening pneumonia. I still went ahead & switched to a different health insurance company during open enrollment, but I have not yet canceled the previous one as I'm waiting on the coverage to go through on my hospital stay. I finally received an itemized bill, stating that the hospital stay was around $20,000 in total & I now owe over $9,000 out of pocket. I may sound crazy, but this sounds completely unreasonable to me. I'm an RN at this very hospital, so I was able to go through & check the itemized bill for any inaccuracies, & I couldn't find any other than the fact that I already know how much they hike up the price on so many things that shouldn't cost that much.

I honestly just don't feel like I can do $9,000 right now. I really don't even want to be on a payment plan, bc even though I try to stay healthy & active, getting older I'm afraid it's just a matter of time before I have even more medical bills. I honestly feel like I'm drowning. I keep trying to save some money from each paycheck, but it's getting harder & harder to have anything leftover. With a mortgage, car note, car insurance, (Now 2! health insurance plans), a couple of new prescriptions I have to pay copays on monthly, a daughter that is getting ready to graduate from high school, an AC unit & septic tank that desperately need replacing, money us just so tight. I've been shopping around for a primary healthcare provider, due to some some other issues I'm having, but I'm honestly scared to go to another doctor bc of the bills. I'm hoping to go back to full time (mainly for the benefits) but due to the hospital I work at being in the middle of a merger with another hospital, they're not allowing anybody to switch over like that at the moment.

I feel like $5,000 would be doable. I've had some people advise me to first call the insurance company, then the hospital financial office, but what do I even say? I'm in a bad situation right now, & I need you to knock a few grand off? I have no idea how to navigate this

submitted by /u/Rollersk885
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