Tirra Jones filed Chapter 13 bankruptcy last month and finally got relief from $271,000 of debt mostly medical debt that had become an albatross around her neck. When Tirra came to us for help, she was feeling stressed and overwhelmed by all of the medical debt that was created by a series of hospital emergency room visits, ambulance rides, surgery, doctors visits and other medical related expenses. She just couldn’t take it anymore and finally made the decision to get relief through bankruptcy.  The Star-Telegram tells her story:

“Jones said she thought it would be easy to get private insurance when she left her customer service job at Wells Fargo in 2003 to open her own day-care center. She’d been treated for diabetes and high blood pressure, but expected to be able to pay for a private insurance policy.

In the article Tirra made a good point. She said, “When you get sick, what are you supposed to do?”…”You can’t say, ‘I want to keep my credit, so I’m not going to the hospital.” And that’s what most people rightfully and sensibly do–they go to the hospital. Unfortunately that decision often comes with the hefty price of medical debt, especially if you don’t have health insurance. That’s why we at Allmand and Lee get a sense of satisfaction helping debtors such as Tirra get their medical debt under control using bankruptcy and getting on the road to a fresh financial start.

Then reality set in.

“They just tell you no,” she said. “They say, ‘You don’t qualify because you’re diabetic. You don’t qualify because of high blood pressure. It’s hard. That’s why you have so many people walking around with no insurance.”

This happens more than most people would imagine. Health insurance companies have an incredible amount of power to deny insurance coverage to non-traditional workers such as the self-employed and part-time workers who don’t have access to group plans. Many of those workers end up with massive amounts of medical debt because they don’t have health insurance coverage. Many of them have no other choice but to file bankruptcy to get relief from the barrage of calls and threatening letters from creditors representing the hospitals.

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