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You may have seen people attempt to crowdfund their medical bills on websites like GoFundMe or GiveForward. These websites allow hundreds of strangers to make small or large donations amounting to thousands of dollars. Crowdfunding campaigns to reduce hospital bills are popular on Facebook, Twitter and other large social media websites.
The bad news is that these campaigns rarely ever work. If you plan to crowdfund unaffordable medical bills, your chances of succeeding are a little over 1 in 10. An analysis by the financial website NerdWallet claims only 11 percent of crowdfunding campaigns for medical bills are successful at meeting their targets. The average campaign for medical bills seeks to raise $15,721 in donations.
Although you are unlikely to raise money on GoFundMe for hospital bills, there are still other solutions for reducing medical debt.
How Can You Reduce Hospital Bills Without Crowdfunding?
Even people with health insurance can receive hospitals bills exceeding their out-of-pocket maximums. This most often occurs through balance billing, where a person with insurance receives services from someone who is out-of-network.
You can negotiate medical bills with hospitals to reduce what you owe. It is also possible to find and contest mistakes on your hospital bills. If these solutions do not work, filing for bankruptcy can reduce what you owe or discharge debts.
Medical bills are unsecured debts and can be discharged in Chapter 7 bankruptcy. If you file for Chapter 13 bankruptcy, you can set up a three to five-year repayment plan to pay back a portion of the debts. The amount owed in your Chapter 13 repayment plan can be less than what it was before filing for bankruptcy.
The Kansas City bankruptcy attorneys at The Sader Law Firm can help people find solutions to life’s most difficult financial situations.
