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[gunslinger]

step 1: pay upfront for surgery
step 2: don't give them your social security number
step 3: get surgery
step 4: if you are charged a surprise hefty bill post surgery, change your address. they will never be able to contact you. they will never be able to affect your credit score because you didn't give them your social security

Will this plan work???

[boklecrt]

step 1: pay upfront for surgery
step 2: don't give them your social security number
step 3: get surgery
step 4: if you are charged a surprise hefty bill post surgery, change your address. they will never be able to contact you. they will never be able to affect your credit score because you didn't give them your social security

Will this plan work???

no it wont work as you are firmly in the databases of the three credit agencies so they coordinate between addresses and a multitude of other factors to avoid people being able to bail on bills like that

the best course of action is to make sure you will not need a large loan in the future(for 7 years), i.e. buy a house before you plan to bail on your medical bills as once you get hit with the non-payment you're looking at at least 300 point drop of score and 7 years until it gets cleared off the record

[gunslinger]

no it wont work as you are firmly in the databases of the three credit agencies so they coordinate between addresses and a multitude of other factors to avoid people being able to bail on bills like that

the best course of action is to make sure you will not need a large loan in the future(for 7 years), i.e. buy a house before you plan to bail on your medical bills as once you get hit with the non-payment you're looking at at least 300 point drop of score and 7 years until it gets cleared off the record

Damn how naive I was!

If you bail on medical bills, could collections do you any harm?

Can collectors find out you did LL and threaten to inform your medical details to your family and friends and coworkers?

Can they sue you and the case will go to court and some of your medical information will be out there in public record?

[boklecrt]

Damn how naive I was!

If you bail on medical bills, could collections do you any harm?

Can collectors find out you did LL and threaten to inform your medical details to your family and friends and coworkers?

Can they sue you and the case will go to court and some of your medical information will be out there in public record?

im sorry but have you been living under a rock? medical history is PRIVATE. full stop

collectors dont get information about your medical history. they get an assignment of your name and how much you owe hospital X or whatever and then they work to get your wages garnished, or put a lien on your property

If you are serious in your attempt to bail on your bills go get a $200 consultation with an attorney that deals with property liens, or creditor-debtor cases to see how you can protect your hard assets in case of a court decision against you

[gunslinger]

im sorry but have you been living under a rock? medical history is PRIVATE. full stop

collectors dont get information about your medical history. they get an assignment of your name and how much you owe hospital X or whatever and then they work to get your wages garnished, or put a lien on your property

If you are serious in your attempt to bail on your bills go get a $200 consultation with an attorney that deals with property liens, or creditor-debtor cases to see how you can protect your hard assets in case of a court decision against you

Never got surgery before, never been in debt. Thats why I am so naive.

I have every intention of paying but if they send me a $150k EXTRA bill I can't do much. I don't even know what an upper limit can be. Can they send a $250k EXTRA bill?

I will look into securing hard assets.

It is quite surprising most people on the forum don't even think about these things. They think "OK the doc said 75k, I got that, let me get surgery next week then." Or do I worry too much?

There should have been some form of an insurance which would provide a security to elective cosmetic surgery patients. Right now Kaiser Permanente will cover any complications but they will not cover the extra bills that a different hospital sends you right after elective surgery. But if something bad happens after surgery and you go to a Kaiser hospital, you will get taken care of.

[Medium Drink Of Water]

I don't believe there is an upper limit on hospital bills.  If you have a major medical problem, they'll treat you immediatley and charge whatever high price they feel like, usually without explanation for why it costs that much.  A guy I know was in a bad car accident a while back and his bills (mostly covered by insurance) are in the multi-millions of dollars.

The only bit of good news is you can usually negotiate the price down after the fact when they find out you're not a billionaire, and they don't get super-aggressive about collections since they know you can't pay a bill that costs more than your house no matter how much they harass you.

[gunslinger]

I don't believe there is an upper limit on hospital bills.  If you have a major medical problem, they'll treat you immediatley and charge whatever high price they feel like, usually without explanation for why it costs that much.  A guy I know was in a bad car accident a while back and his bills (mostly covered by insurance) are in the multi-millions of dollars.

The only bit of good news is you can usually negotiate the price down after the fact when they find out you're not a billionaire, and they don't get super-aggressive about collections since they know you can't pay a bill that costs more than your house no matter how much they harass you.

Damn

So the choice is

a) Go abroad and get LL in an unsafe place. If you run into complications, Kaiser will take care of you in USA.
b) Get LL in USA and risk bankruptcy. Attempting elective surgery in USA seems dangerous financially even if you have saved enough for the initial surgery.

[JJ299]

Look into Korea. Arguabely one of the most experienced and safest place to do LL and cosmetic surgery in general. The con is they have a very long wait time because of the domestic demand ( for example: Dr. Lee's next available surgery is November 2024 ).