Need help raising funds for a friend
@ admin: Sorry if it's not allowed to post these kinds of things, feel free to remove it.
I'm normally not someone who would post this kind of stuff to places like this or other sites, as it's probably kind of annoying, but l'm honestly starting to get super worried.
A close friend recently broke her leg & thanks to the fucked up US healthcare system she's got a $1800 bill due on the 11th of October. I set up a fundraiser to try and help, which raised $500 so far, but that's just not enough.
I'm really worried for her (mental) wellbeing & l am desperately trying to scrape together what l can to help. l think if the bill isn't paid, it wouldn't take long for her to end up homeless, or worse.
l don't like asking this, but would anyone be able to either donate or share the tweet? Any amount helps.
l would genuinely appreciate it a lot if you could, and l understand if you can't.
https://twitter.com/asoftbird/status/1294762351242235904?s=21
Edit: it's in the tweet, but l should mention she's trans and disabled; becoming homeless already is pretty bad, but given the other circumstances l'm honestly not sure if she'll survive that.
I have donated her $600 already which is as much as l can miss, l don't know what to do about the bit that's still missing.
A lot of hospitals have charities they work with who will pay the hospital bill. It's a lot of paperwork, but worth it to push through. If she's having a rough time, maybe you can reach out to the hospital and find out if they have something like that in place, and if they do, what are the first steps. Then you can help her through the process. Someone helped me through the process years ago, and I pay it forward by helping others. Most people do not know that those sorts of things are available.
Apparently she's tried this already, but it's not available to her hospital :/
I would double check that. I've heard the same before, and a lot of times in my case, either they did not speak to the right person, or the process was so overwhelming that they were unable to navigate due to all the other shit they had going on in their lives, and it as easier for them to dismiss it (which is totally understandable).
There of course are times when the hospital does not offer anything, but often there are services around the perimeter that can be tapped into. Again, often our friends don't have the bandwidth to chase all that crap down, and we can do that for them. No one should have to go through this shit, and your friend is so lucky to have you. If you would like to message me the city/town, I am willing to help search for resources. If there are resources, helping your friend navigate them and take care of this could help them feel successful, like they were able to take care of their shit. If there isn't anything, that freaking sucks and they should do like vord said and forget it. I don't think it's unethical at all to do so once we've given it our best shot.
Though /u/monarda had suggested hospital charitable programs, they're nearly impossible to access unless you're under age 18 (and more difficult to get into than they should be for children's healthcare).
What does work is asking for a payment plan. For an amount like $1,800, it may be possible to get it down to a nearly manageable monthly cost like $15 - 25 with income indexing. Even if it would take years to pay off at that rate, hospitals prefer structured payment plans to getting ten cents on the dollar in collections.
Honestly, screw the payment. If she's homeless already, let them send the bill to collections and have her use the money to get back on her feet.
Rack up enough debt and declare bankruptcy if already low credit score.
She's not.
Either way, 1,600 is small enough likely nobody will bother taking to claims court to force payment, they'll sell off the debt to a vulture for pennies on the dollar. Said vulture has same problem, they'll robocall to nag, which you can force them to stop. They'll resell debt. Rinse/repeat, paperwork gets lost, they have no proof, debt fades past statute of limitations, problem solved.
https://www.credit.com/blog/7-things-you-need-to-know-about-fair-debt-collection-practices-act-statute-of-limitations-114442/
Might be unethical in some ways, but no more-so than how bad the system was rigged to begin with. Fair play if the alternative is being completely broke.
Source: A certain friend discharged $5,000+ of unpaid medical and credit card debt about a decade ago, good enough credit now to buy house.
Based on everything I read about the brutal way people are charged for healthcare in the US, I’d say not paying in this situation is not unethical at all.
That's now how ethics should work.
Laws should not be unethical. They are currently. Until they change, the system the laws protect are unethical as well.
Mandating that you must choose between rent, food, and healthcare is immoral. Cheating an immoral system is not immoral IMO.
Why not? I think it's reasonable to say you shouldn't be compelled to pay an arbitrary price for an obligatory service.
The are many kinds of ethics, you know. People use multiple, split by area of application. When it comes to healthcare, I’m more utilitarian. In those cases, overall happiness is often more important than following the rules.