Editor’s Note: This story originally appeared on The Penny Hoarder.
Eye-popping health care costs these days can be enough to financially drown some households when medical issues arise. And even if you can afford health insurance, it doesn’t cover all the costs.
That makes it hard not to consider the medical bills before you see a doctor or even visit a hospital. But it’s so important to take care of your health. It’s better to be bankrupt and alive and well than to die with more favorable finances.
To help, we found some ways you can get the care you need without dreading the bill.
We’re going to cover strategies that can help you access health care services for less. In some situations, they may help keep you out of debt.
Remember that regardless of the financial outcome, you should put your health first whenever the system allows you to — even if that means staring down some medical debt.
1. Take advantage of charity care programs
The Affordable Care Act requires nonprofit hospitals to offer charity care programs. This means that if your income is below a certain threshold, they’re required to have funds available to help offset your bill.
The quality of these programs varies by state, but regardless of where you live, the law requires that these hospital systems have some help available.
This is true whether or not you have insurance, and at many hospital systems, the income guidelines are higher than you might imagine. Ask about the program and apply as soon as possible — even if you consider yourself middle-income.
Organizations like Dollar For can help if you’re feeling lost in the process.
Also bear in mind that this isn’t just for the ER. While it certainly applies to that situation, if the medical provider you visit is affiliated with a nonprofit hospital system, there’s a good chance that those bills will qualify for the financial assistance program, too.
This is particularly true for urgent care facilities, as in many communities, you can often find one that’s linked to the local nonprofit hospital system. It may also be true for your GP or other specialist.
2. Look for free or low-cost clinics
Depending on where you live, there may be free or low-cost community clinics you can access for GP services and annual checkups. These can be especially useful if you’re able to schedule ahead of time.
Keep an eye out for mobile health clinics, too, as these can provide screenings or health checkups in communities that don’t have access to other medical care providers.
If you need something a little more specialized, there may be a dedicated clinic for your specific concern. For example, you can look for:
- Sexual health services at Planned Parenthood (which provides services for all genders).
- Free STD/STI screenings and treatment at your local CDC clinic.
- Doctors and other health care facilities that partner with charities to offer free mammograms.
- Reduced-cost dental care at any number of clinics, including your local university’s dental school.
Tip: If you can’t find a low-cost clinic in your community, try asking your GP or specialist for an uninsured rate. Some offices will bill you the Medicaid rate, making things cheaper. Others will knock a flat percentage off the cost of services. Others won’t even take you into the office without insurance, but it’s worth asking.
3. Try to get CHIP for your children
Even if you don’t live in a Medicaid expansion state, even if you can’t afford health insurance for yourself, you can get it for your children.
The Children’s Health Insurance Program provides free or sliding-scale premiums for children’s health insurance coverage, so even if your income is low your child should still be able to see a pediatrician and access other health services they may need.
4. Shop around for big procedures
If you need something like surgery or an MRI, shopping around can save you big money on health care costs. Get quotes (preferably in writing) from different facilities, and be sure to research the quality of care you’d get.
The weird thing is that just because a place is more expensive doesn’t necessarily mean the quality of care is better.
Not all facilities willingly give you a quote on the cost of care, and if you need a service like this, it’s probably not worth taking the time to fight for one. Be sure not to delay your medical care for too long in the name of shopping around for the best price.
While it can be a helpful practice if you’ve been medically advised that you have enough time, it’s not worth doing if it will delay care that could save your life or better your health.
In those instances, look for those charity care/financial assistance programs once you get the bill.
5. Check for medical billing errors
If you’ve received a medical bill, odds are it has errors. The rate of errors is particularly high if you have multiple insurance policies, such as Medicaid and Medicare, or private insurance plus TriCare.
When you have multiple streams of health insurance coverage, there’s more opportunities for the billing systems to not play nice together and produce medical billing errors.
I’m not going to lie to you: Dealing with these errors can be an absolute nightmare. But doing so can sometimes save you thousands of dollars. Here are some strategies you can implement to deal with the mess:
- Familiarize yourself with mandatory coverage. If you have an ACA plan, there are certain services your plan must cover every year under federal law. At least once a year, I have to call an insurer out for trying to bill me for a covered service. Take a look at your bills — I’m willing to bet I’m not alone.
- Don’t fall for balance billing. If you have Medicaid and your health care provider tries to bill you for the difference between their charges and what Medicaid pays out (outside of any Medicaid plan co-pays, if your state has them), this is called balance billing. And it’s illegal. It doesn’t mean some health care providers won’t try it, though. Keep an eye out for it if your child has CHIP coverage, too.
- Reach out for assistance. Going up against insurance companies and major health care organizations is an uphill battle. If you need help, reach out to a patient advocacy group.
6. Shop around for prescription drugs
Prescription drugs can be completely unaffordable, but if they’re saving your life or improving your quality of life, they’re a must-have. If you’re having trouble affording your medication, here are some things you can try to save money on your prescriptions:
- Get a prescription discount card. If you don’t have one yourself, odds are your pharmacist will be happy to recommend one. Be sure to ask them to run the billing a couple different ways, too. Sometimes, even if you have insurance, it can be cheaper to get the drug with the prescription discount card without billing insurance than it is to have the insurer cover their part of the bill. This isn’t always the case, though, so you’ll want to try it multiple ways.
- Look at discount prescription sites. One of the biggest is Mark Cuban’s Cost Plus Drugs. These websites order the drug directly so they can sell it to you without the markup, reducing costs.
- Go generic — but only with your doctor’s consent. Sometimes the brand name really doesn’t matter. Sometimes it really, really does. In cases where it makes no difference, going generic may save you some cash.
Don’t Let Health Care Costs Prevent You From Accessing Health Care
It’s easy to say and hard to do. Medical bills have the very real potential to bankrupt you, but your wellbeing is on the line.
Try to save on health care costs using the strategies we talked about today. But if they’re not enough to alleviate your medical billing anxiety, push on and get the care anyways in every instance where the system will let you. Your life and health are more important than any debt that shows on a balance sheet.
